No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - NLU Podcast, Episode 467: Harris English

Episode Date: August 18, 2021

Harris English joins the pod to either confirm or deny that he is indeed flushing the ball, as well as detailing the final round of the WGC-FexEx St. Jude Classic, his bounceback in form in recent years, heckling at tour events, the differences between major championships and regular PGA Tour events, the Ryder Cup, and so much 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. How about him? That is better than most. Better than most. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the No-Lang Up Podcast. Sully here got an interview coming up with Harris English shortly. Admittedly, I didn't really know a whole lot about Harris. I just had a sneaky suspicion that he'd be a good interview and he did not disappoint.

Really interesting comments on heckling, on what it was like to play with Bryce and we recorded this last week shortly after the FedEx St. Jude invitation, which he had in Bryce and we're in the final group pairing together. He's got stories from that day. What happened? Kind of on that back nine being put on the clock and how that affected him. What he learned from it. Very fascinating interview. I'm going to get get through this to make sure you can get to it. This podcast is of course brought to you by our friends at whoop whoop whop OOP.com. You can use promo code no laying up. That's all one word for 15% off everything on the website. It's got everything you could possibly want for personalized insights on sleep on what kind of strain you're putting on your body. What days are best to put strain on your body? How well your body is actually

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So the rumors have been flying around forever We had to bring you on just to confirm whether or not it's true Can you confirm the rumors we've gotten out of C Island that you are indeed flushing the ball? Yes, the past couple years the flush meter is definitely going up and I appreciate Big Randy getting this scoop here from Seattle. But yeah, if he keeps hearing him flush and then I must be doing something right. So, Keos, keep it going. Well, we're recording this on Wednesday after the WGC, the St. Jude.

It's going to come out next week here. But just kind of unpacking a little bit from this past week. You've had an incredible season. You're fifth in the FedEx Cup standing, it's heading into the playoffs. You've won twice. How do you balance an incredibly successful season by all measures with a tournament which the result got away

from you at the very end? You've had all of this success yet. Your route to a fourth place finish in Memphis was not the way you would have picked to get there. How do you balance that? What's it like, you know, a few days after that happening? Yeah. I mean, if you had told me what two or three years ago

when I was playing in the Corn Ferry finals at this time, that I would be fourth in the FAQs, Cup standings had two wins. I mean, I out to for sure take in it. And I like putting a positive spin on everything and I was working with my coach today, Justin Parsons. And he said something pretty simple. Like if you just flipped around your rounds from last week

and you shot 62 last round, you shot 73, 65, 65, 62, you'd be standing here thinking about how good you're playing and what a great week you had. and you shot 62 last round, you shot 73, 65, 65, 62. You'd be standing here thinking about how good you're playing and what a great week you had, what a great turnaround. And if you just, he's great at that. He's great at helping me look at different situations and taking the pauses out of it. And that's what I'm gonna do this past, we've got, I feel like I played probably the best golf

of anybody I didn't win, didn't have a good couple of holes coming down the stretch there, but I played some some great golf. And I feel like my game is the best. It's ever been the most consistent it's ever been. So I'm taking last week as a positive and definitely made strides in the right direction. Got myself in the Hunn again, had a great chance to win. And the more and more I can do that,

that's kind of how I how I grade myself on a tournament is did I give myself a chance to win the tournament? Was I competitive? I can check all those boxes from last week. And yeah, the outcome wasn't what I wanted to happen, but I feel like I'm gonna learn a lot from being in that situation again and hopefully can do better next time.

A lot I wanna chat about there, but you said some interesting there about Justin Parsons and I wanted to talk about him at some point anyways. But I think a lot of people, a lot of golf fans, view swing coaches or coaches in general as just being highly technical of what you guys work with. But the way you kind of described how his reaction to your play there, I'm curious how you view

like how messaging works from a teacher to a player, right? And how much is technical versus just reassuring that you are playing good golf? That is more, I would say that's more of a mental coaching aspect of that. How would you evaluate the balance of those and how Justin does it in particular? Yeah, he's been way different from a coach's point of view than I've really ever had of. He is my mental coach right now. He helps me a lot with the ups and downs ago off, not just my swing.

When you get nerves, when you're gonna repressure, I mean, he's been around the game for a long time. He's worked with a lot of great, great players. Louis Uses and Darren Clark, Charles Schwarzel. He's been around major champions before. He knows how they think. He knows how tough it is to close out of tournament. And he's been great for me.

Yeah, we work in the studio. We work on my swing a little bit. Mainly working on the takeaway. But he's just the total package of not just working on swing positions. I mean, a lot of the time we're working on how I'm carrying myself, my posture, my balance, stuff that a normal person wouldn't really think like why are they working on that? But it's just the little things that he's helped me with the way I practice. He's been

he's been amazing for me and has been so instrumental in my turnaround from a few years ago. And I want to get into that turnaround as well, but going back to Memphis, just take us back to kind of how things played out on Sunday. It was a lot of people who are watching on television, you're final pairing with Bryson. Both of you guys just totally kind of ran out of steam

on that back nine, I think. Some rules or pace issues kind of played a factor and all that. And I'm wondering if you could kind of set the scene for us there. And I'm sure I'll have a million follow-up questions based on that. Yeah, so how I like to get ready for a round or a tournament

round in general is really from the time I wake up until the time I tee off. I try to keep it at the same pace. I try to really slow down. I try to do everything the same from the music I listen to, riding to the golf course. I just like to really slow down. I'm very rhythm oriented. So I started the round in a great rhythm felt really good. Yeah,

I bogey the first soul, but it is what it is and got back into the round. I started playing some good golf. And so on, we're walking down number five and rules official comes up to us. I don't think we're that we're that far out of position. Bryson had just made bogeon for Chipped It short in the bunker. That took a little while, but walking up five and he said, okay, we're gonna time the group in front of you. So just for warning, they're probably gonna play a little faster. So that's pretty much like, okay, y'all need to keep up with them.

So we play number five, each hips in for Bernie, I make a short butt for par, no big deal. And then number six happens and he hits it over there on the fence, retie, sits another one. And it's kind of a weird, I didn't go over there to see what happened. I'll stand in the fairway, because Ken Tacket came over and was helping Bryson while that, but it took a while. I mean dropping from the fence or figuring out if it was in bounds out of bounds first of all. The string came out. Yeah. Whatever you see, the string,

it's going to take a while. Yeah, yeah. And I'm sure Bryson has some different questions. And then he ended up taking a drop from the cart path. So it's like a double, double ruling there. And it took a while. So we're here we are. Well, not all sorry, not on top of that drop from the cart path. Place it, it doesn't stay. Place it again, doesn't stay. Place it, place it. Finally, get it. Place like all of this takes time and contributes to what ultimately happens, right? Yeah. Yeah. And that's, that's going to happen. I mean, you're going gonna have long rulings like that that wasn't his fault at all It just sucked at the time that the group in front of us Abe and Kim Smith were getting time so they were already taken off and here we are

Really slowing down with with this drop and so I don't know how long that took didn't really affect me there I got the chill in the fairway for a while. Hit probably one of the best shots of the day up there in made birdie. And we didn't, I didn't really think about it anymore until we get to number 10. And I could see the rules officials, you can see them on the road line.

They're kind of watching us or whatever. And I think we took a pretty good while in number 10. And then, you could feel the wind start picking up, the storm rolling in, the sky gets darker, the wind picks up, and here we are going to number 11, which no wind, that hole is not that hard. You got a pretty big space, you could see that they're a full pitching wedge,

little nine iron or whatever, but when the wind's picking up like that, when it's swirling, we don't know where it's coming from. It's not easy at all. So I hit the wrong club. I thought I hit a pretty good shot, hit it too high. The wind was into us, short in the water, whatever. Okay, like take my double move on.

Let's see if we can get some more birdies and Walking up 12 I make five Bryson makes six So obviously we took a long time there walking up 12 we're getting timed and 12 is playing hard the winds did and I'm usually the last three days I hit three and off that tea I kind of play it out to left, three on, nine on, three on and pitch and wedge. And I knew I had the three on and off that tee, I was going to have six or seven on and it wasn't going to be a birdie hole. So I knew the three would pull it, things started to happen a little faster and it was just, it kind of spiraled a little bit of,

I made a great part there, but it got me out of my rhythm. I don't like being timed. It's one of my biggest pet peeves on tour. And I know I got to fix that. How often, if you're just estimating, if you're not being timed, are you going over 40 seconds pretty frequently? And I'm not asking that

in a way. Are you slow? I want to unpack that a little bit in terms of, I think that there's not a lot of benefit to being a fast player on the PGA tour is kind of what I'm getting at. It rarely benefits you, right? If you play fast, you're going to run into the group in front of you on nine times out of 10, right? So it is a skill, I think, to be able to manage your time and slow yourself down at times and not rush yourself, yet when you get behind, having to speed up feels like it would be very difficult, especially when you're talking about all these wind factors going on. It is. Like you said, I mean, we were playing in the three of some of the first two days, you definitely get into rhythm and it's definitely a lot slower rhythm.

You got two other guys hitting and you can take your time and I don't feel like rarely a threesome gets out of position, but the weekend when you're playing a threesome, it's a totally different rhythm and pace to the round. And like you said, I mean, the first couple days it does not benefit you at all to play fast because you're gonna be waiting a lot. And I've never really timed myself on my routine or how long I take.

I mean, they have the PJ Tour timings list or they have the observation list and I haven't been on that before. I've never exceeded the 10 timings a year. So I didn't really consider myself a slow player. I mean, I'm definitely aware of if the group or the round is playing slow, I can play slow with the best of them. But if it's speeding up, I feel like I can pick up my pace.

But I've never really been in that situation on the final round where I was so concerned with the pace and it affected me so much on my routine and everything was kind of spiraling out of control. I couldn't slow down, I couldn't slow my heart rate down, walking from the greens to the teas. I mean, it was 100 degrees out there and I feel like I couldn't calm myself down

to be able to hit the shot. Which is, is that a lesson, I guess, to be learned here? Because, you know, if I'm looking, I'm looking at, I think it contributed greatly to about back 940, I think you would agree with that. And if I'm looking at the punishments for bat, you first get a warning for the first time that you're over 40 seconds. And the next time is a one shot penalty. I think in hindsight, you would take both of those, right? get a warning for the first time that you're over 40 seconds and the next time is a one shot penalty.

I think in hindsight, you would take both of those, right? That would have taken two bad times to get to that point. So did you overrush yourself because you were put on the clock? I, for sure, good. Yeah. I, I don't, I don't think that's fair to be able to do that of me playing as slow as I can. I know some guys would probably do that of me playing as slow as I can. I know some guys would probably do that, they wouldn't let it affect them at all,

but I don't think that's fair to the rest of the players in the field, but I'm playing in last group and I get to take however much time I want. I don't see that as very fair. I was trying to do whatever I can to get our group to help get our group back in position. Yeah, I mean, it cost me some shots for sure, but like I worked with Justin today on what strategies I can do or have my caddy Eric do to help us get to the ball a little faster to the where we can really dial in our number and be comfortable with it and feel like I can go through my routine and not affect me.

I think everyone in golf too can say there's days on the golf course where you have no idea why you're reacting the way that you are, right? I've had extremely unimportant rounds of golf that I get just uncontrollably frustrated at and you know, very important rounds that I do poorly in and don't get frustrated Like that's what it looked like to me. You were having one of those days where you know You can't really explain why you're reacting the way that you are and you know and almost seem like you realize that as soon as you got off the golf course Is that am I on to something? Yeah, yeah, yeah I guess when you're in the moment sure you wish you could

Be outside the ropes and be like, man, calm down. You're not just keep playing your game, stay focused on your routine. And I usually don't let anything fluster me like that. I'm usually very calm and don't let things bug me at all. And for some reason that really bug me and it took me off my game. So I think that's really the only thing I regret is how I let it affect me. But I know I'm probably gonna be in that position again

and I'm gonna do things a little bit differently and I'm gonna get better at it. Yeah, that's well said. Is there, because it seems like it's really hard to honestly point the blame anywhere, honestly not really at you for the pace, at Bryson for the pace, at the rules officials for the pace.

Is it a policy thing? Is it something that, it's like, hey, if we get a ruling here, a ruling that causes us to get further behind that you should be playing maybe under a different pace rule, and especially if you're in the last group and you're not holding anyone else up,

is there anything that should change in this regard? Yeah, that's hard. That's really hard. I know that's discussed every single year on the PGA tour and they're trying to get it better. But I look at it as just a very strange situation and a very unique circumstance that what happened to us. But I definitely get, like, if we take 10 minutes on a ruling, we should kind of get those

10 minutes back of, we shouldn't play 10 minutes faster than everybody else in the field on the next few holes. So I'm sure they've talked about it endlessly. But it's just something, it's hard to put a finger on what's the perfect solution for that. That's so hard to, yeah. It's so hard to write a rule for this, you know? You know, the rule is extensive and lengthy written

and it's just, yeah, it just can't apply to all situations. But coming down the stretch of a tournament like this, as we approach the FedEx Cup playoffs and the tremendous, tremendous prizes that come at the end of the FedEx Cup season. And also kind of a forgotten about thing going into the end of the regular season is the Comcast, Business Top 10.

And really, you're playing for a lot more than just the tournament right in front of you, especially at this late stage of a season. Does that enter your mind at all prior to the round during the round? Does that change anything or are you just focused on the golf tournament? Yeah, it doesn't really change anything. I mean, all that's gravy. I'm just really playing to win, I guess. I mean, I want to, I love Southwind. I love that tournament. So I was just winning, I wanted that trophy. I wanted my name on a WGC trophy. So it's hard to think about all that other stuff. I mean, that's the weird thing about golf is there's always something else. There's always, once you get top 10 in the world, try to get the number one in the

world. Or there's always something else. So you can, once you get top 10 in the world, try to get the number one in the world. Or there's always something else. So you can get so far of looking ahead of what all this stuff means and you kind of lose focus on what you have right in front of you. And that's what I try to do is what's my task at hand. I'm going to try to win this golf tournament today and whatever comes of it comes of it. A quick break to check in with our friends at golf blueprint. You've heard DJ Pys say this and this analogy has always stuck with me. For a long time, at least I always would go to the gym and just kind of like, yeah, this machine's open. I'll do this.

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Same as it has been, but they launched a new classic membership for those that don't. If you don't have the time or the financial resources or you want something maybe a little less extensive, it's $39 a month versus the players membership, which is $99 a month. Make your practice time worth it. Go to Golf Blueprint.com. Check out the membership structures that give you great cards and they just make practice, you know, not only is it very valuable for you, it's actually kind of fun. Make sure you look forward to it. You know, it's something you can add to your calendars that I need to get this done today. It will help your golf game. 100% they've got all kinds of data on how much they've helped people with

their golf game. And I strongly, strongly endorse this of data on how much they've helped people with their golf game. And I strongly strongly endorse this product. GolfBluePrint.com. Let's get back to Harris English. What's it like playing in the final round of a PGA Tour event these days with Bryson? What did you hear out there? What's the atmosphere like? Yeah, I do enjoy playing with Bryson first off.

I really enjoy seeing the shots he can pull off and just how he plays golf because it's so much different than the way I play golf. His thought process is so much different. So I enjoy seeing that part of it. But it has been a little bit of a circus. It was a little bit of a circus on Memphis. If people don't like following Bryson, if they don't like the way he is, then don't follow him. What I don't like is people following Bryson and Hekko and I'm trying to mess him up. That's where this whole golf gambling thing can get a little dicey is if a guy is betting against Bryson, he's gonna go out there and try to mess him up the whole day and that's not that fair. But I mean, I get it. I get that yes, he has probably put

someone on this himself. He's said some things that he shouldn't have said, but it's just tough. He's in a tough spot right now. I wish he would come to the media and kind of tell him and be honest with what he's going through and it affects him. I didn't like that he blew off the media last week. I don't think that helps him a lot. But I wish him and Brooks would put this to bed and they can let it go. And then the fans can let it go and get back to golf fans being golf fans and enjoying golf and pulling for guys and not having this heckling, this bullying going on that's going on because it sucks and it's a little bit distracting obviously playing with them as well.

I mean, you feel bad for him and it shouldn't be like that. Yeah. I think the game changed when people were being incentivized to heckle another player. I thought it was fun, funny for the most part, the back and forths, and then when that happened, I just got, as soon as it happened, I said, oh no.

Like this is not good. Boba Buies been in our lives for like 25 years now. People just don't let this stuff go very easily, and it's really hard to put the toothpaste back in the tube. And that's kind of, you know, I hadn't really even thought of it from the perspective of like the playing partner. Like if you have a heart, right? The playing partner is going to like feel like you're going to feel something in relation to that as you hear it. You know, even if it's not directed at you, it's kind of like,

it's not a great vibe. And that's, I honestly hadn't even thought of it down to the detail of like, yeah, you can make a simple head to head bet against Bryson in a match and walk around and heckle him the entire day. That's not a great, great thing for the game of golf. It was not great. Yes, I think that's where they got to watch it. I didn't see him going up to any cops in our group

or anything trying to stop it, but you can't really stop that. It was happening with multiple people pretty much every hole. I don't know how they put a stop to it or an end to it, but I think it's just going to keep happening because people get an enjoyment out of it, they think they're funny, but it's really, it hurts not to sum, it hurts everybody after life. Yeah.

Well, on a totally different note, you know, we got a lot to chat about about the, a bit of the ups and downs in your career, but I want to start it with this, almost a decade into your pro career. Give us your review of your career to date. Have you exceeded, met, or fallen short of what you were expecting? What's your career review personally? Right now, I feel like I've met it. I mean, I definitely have a lot more to do

than I want to do in this game. I mean, obviously with the rider cup coming up, I really want to make that team. I feel like that's the pinnacle of our sport. But I feel like for the most part, I've been pretty under the radar, pretty underrated for all of my career. And I've probably proven a lot of people wrong, but I don't play this game to prove people wrong.

I play this game for myself and the enjoyment and I love competing. That's why I've played since I was a kid. I love the feeling of trying to win golf tournaments. I love practicing. I love trying to work on my craft out of the course. It's just a lot of fun to be able to compete on my craft out of the course and it's just a lot a lot of fun to be able to compete against the best players in the world. And this is by far the best season I've had. Hopefully I'm not done and I can keep going and keep continuing this run

for a long time. But I'm happy with my career. Obviously your career is kind of defined by the wins and losses, unfortunately, but I feel like I've had both. I've taken it on the chin and I feel like I've prevailed a good bit too. So I'm really happy with the way I've fought back. I mean, it would have been easy a few years ago to give up and say, oh, I've made this much money in the game. I've done this on that.

I'm going to be done, but I didn't want to do that. I felt like I had a lot more to go, and I knew I could do it. I knew I could contend in majors. I knew I could win more golf tournaments. And that's probably the thing I'm most proud of is the way I'll fall back, the way I dug it out of the ground and got my game back.

Well, how would you characterize your game declining? What the contributing factors were, if it's a typical late 20s swoon, or were you looking around too much and seeing other things that people were doing and trying to do a million different things rather than focusing on being yourself, I might be cheating a little bit, I may have heard you reference that in the past, but I want to kind of hear you explain why. It's one of those things that when things are going wrong,

you cannot put a finger on why that is. You just kind of sit around and are dreading it and wondering how to get it back. I'm wondering if you're perspective on why your decline happened. If you've gained any perspective on that, now that you've got your game back and better than ever. Yeah, that's a great question. I feel like at this point in my career, I've pretty much played with everybody and has seen everybody swing, everybody, how they how they play golf.

And I guess early in my career, it was a little shocking of playing with some of these guys. I'm like, wow, I've never seen a guy hit the golf ball like that or swing that good. This guy's way better than me. I've got to get a lot better. It really came down to, I didn't have a whole lot of structure in the way I practiced or I didn't really know what I did in my swing that made me good. I just did it. And when it got off, I didn't know why it got off or how to get it back on track. And I think that was the root of the problem, I guess, is I relied too much on, yeah, I worked really hard. And I had a lot of talent, but I didn't know

why I did certain things. And I felt like that's what Justin has helped me a lot with is getting a lot of structure in the way I practice and the way I prepare. So I know if something gets off, how to get it back on track. So I feel like I have a pretty good formula right now of what I do when I'm at home preparing for a golf tournament

and what I do on the road when I'm preparing for a golf tournament. So I feel like I've stuck to that and has made me a lot more consistent of a player because I hate missing cuts and I feel like that's one part of my game that has gotten a lot better is I've been way more consistent over the past couple years of making a lot of cuts, continuing in tournaments

and not having those shockingly bad rounds. Well, it's interesting the more years I get into covering golf, I see more cycles with players, right? You see great peaks and kind of the times where you wonder, you know, why something's going going the way it is. And hearing Patrick Harrington speak recently on the bliss of ignorance in a young player's career and kind of watching maybe Rory kind of go through

a bit of that right now. And on the other end of the spectrum, watching somebody succeed very early, like Colin Moore, Kawa. I'm wondering if you could kind of shed any light on just, you touched on it there of like you didn't know what made you good. That can be a great thing, right? When you're young, you know, you're not overthinking things.

I'm just wondering if you could shed any light on kind of that, that the benefits and the downfall, I guess, of some ignorance to certain things within the game of golf. Yeah, I agree with Padregan and I could see it playing last week with Colin of he's still young in this game. He he hasn't had a whole lot of scar tissue of hasn't had a whole lot of bad stuff happen in his career and that's a great thing. I hope he continues that. But I mean, you can see it with speed as well. Speed has gotten his game back. And from the players I've seen, I love how Justin Thomas works at a tournament. He does the same thing.

He has a lot of structure and having his dad there, his coach. So I think that really keeps him playing at a high level and he doesn't really have those dips of playing bad golf. Zanders the same the same way. So I've tried to add a lot more of that in my game that I feel like really helps me is just becoming on the road a lot more. Just having that structure and no one you're doing something right and that positive influence on, hey man, you're swinging a great, you're taking away looks great.

Go do it, go have fun, go try to contend and win a golf tournament. Yeah, when you're young, when I'm starting out on the tour, I mean, it's so much fun going to these new places and making a cut, finishing 20th is awesome. I remember my mom used to text me when I was younger was younger, I'm just happy you made the cut. And that was kind of my first year or two on tour of, it's just, I'm just happy to be playing the weekend. And it has definitely changed now to where I'm not too pumped when I finished 50th,

even though I made the cut. I want a contending off-term. So definitely my expectations, my level has risen to what it was that my first few years on tour. You've heard you mentioned the takeaway a couple of times in how that's something that you guys are very honed in on. I'm wondering why it seems to be a big thing for the top level pros to focus on the takeaway.

For the average listener listening to this, that may not understand the gall swing to the extent that obviously that you do, explain why that is, why that's so important, and why maybe at your level it's not nearly as much about action on the down swing or something like that. I don't know the answer to this, and I'm curious as to why it's such a big focus point. Yeah, I mean, I can't speak for other guys of their swings. I've just

really learned a lot more about my swing the past few years. And if I get my first, the first couple feet of my swing, if I get low on the takeaway and inside, then I'm spinning the rest of the swing, trying to get it back on plane. Sometimes it could be good, but the consistency there is not going to be great. And I know if I keep the club head a little bit outside my hands on the way back and the club head a little higher, then it's in the right spot. And I can just go after as hard as I can

and hit my, well, I like to hit a little three or four yard fade. But at this level, you're always working on the little, little small things of, we started talking through my round and Memphis, and I know when I get a little under pressure, or I get a little tired, my aim gets a little right, I move the ball position back, and then that affects my back swing of, then it comes inside a little more and it gets a little lower, And then I start blocking it or drawing it a little more than I want to.

So it kind of goes hand in hand of, that's why you work on the fundamentals so much because it does affect your back sling. It does affect your sling of, if those get off, then you're spending the whole swing trying to correct it because in your brain, you know you're aimed a little right and you're trying to whole swing trying to correct it because in your brain, you know you're and a little right

and you're trying to overcompensate for it. That makes a lot of sense. I'm sensing, as you're saying it, I'm like, oh yeah, I do that wrong too. Yep, that applies to me. Yep, that applies to me. I've also heard you say that, you know, stuff you've done in the gym helps with faults in your swing.

What does that mean? What, how does the gym help there? And I've heard you give a lot of credit to just gym work that you've done in the last few years. What are those faults that the gym addresses and other ways you've seen benefits from just working out? So my right hip has always given me trouble of I'm not very flexible in my hips. I don't squat very well.

I don't know if it's something wrong with the how I was born with my hip sockets or what not. I don't know if it's something wrong with the how I was born with my hip sockets or whatnot, but I'm always working on trying to get more range of motion in my back swing and into my right hip. So if my hip is strong and flexible, then I can really get to my, the top of my back swing and hold it. And be strong in the back swing. But if my hip gets tight and gets weak, then I can't really get into my back swing a whole lot. So every player is different.

Everybody has different weaknesses, and that's one of mine. But every day I'm home, I go into gym and work with work in my trainer, Tom Hemings. And really every four weeks or so, when I come back home, he'll put me through an assessment and kind of see where I'm at of flexibility wise, strength wise, and then he gets into a plan of how we're going to attack it.

But I've pretty much had the same weaknesses since we started working probably four years ago. And it's something just like my golf swing of, now I'm going to have to continue to work on that stuff. With how much we walk on the golf course, how much golf you're playing. It just puts a lot of stress on your hips. 32 years old, now I'm not a fresh out on tour.

I mean, this is my 10th year on tour. So I know the importance of taking care of your body and trying to play this game for as long as I can. When did you stop feeling young? Is there an age that starts to feel like, yeah. You know, I'm not that young anymore. Yeah, I mean, it probably happened a few years ago. I mean, this past year during the players, I had to withdraw,

I had back trouble, low back trouble. I've never had low back trouble in my life and started hitting balls on Wednesday. I was going to play nine holes with Harold Varner and Brendan Todd and I literally get to the first seat and I don't think I can hit a driver a hundred yards. And so I kind of hobble down that hole, hobble down number two, I think it's gonna loosen up and then I was like, guys, I can't play.

I saw I walked down number two and tried to come out and give it a go in Thursday morning and literally couldn't stand up straight. So I know things like that happen and then we've been working hard to get my back a lot better and it's been it's been great the past few years but nobody wants to get injured and that's kind of all we're trying to do in the gym is to stay injury-free and stay healthy and plan for as long as I can. So is there any word or any intel you could give us on the Ryder Cup?

Have you had any conversations, any implications from captains that you are in the running for a pick or a front runner for pick, anything like that? If I'm looking at the standings and I'm you and the way you've played over the last several months, I would like where I'm standing, but I can't get any rumors or anything out of anyone. I'm hoping you got something for me.

Man, I don't. I love, I love striker. He's been a great mentor for me through the years. We've had a lot of dinners together over the past few years and played a lot of golf together. He's one of my favorite guys on tour, but I don't want to put him in that position. I want to get in the top six on my own merit, so I don't want to put him in that position. I want to get in the top six on on my own merit, so I don't have to be a pick because I can't put myself in this position of, I don't want to lobby for a pick or I want him to pick who he wants on the team and I'm not going to have hard feelings if he doesn't pick me. He's doing the best for his team and then he's trying to put together a squad that can go dominate the European. So I haven't heard anything. I don't want to

prod those guys of, I see Davis all the time here in C Island, I see Zach. I mean, I don't want to put those guys in a position. I want to keep doing my thing. I want to keep playing good golf and to where he either has to pick me or I make the team on my own merit. I know how important it is to have guys playing great golf at the right time. It's something that I've had on my radar since I got on tour. That's what I'm this about playing off of Georgia. I'm playing the Walker Cup in 2011. It was an unbelievable experience and one that I know is only going to get better if I make the Ryder Cup team. That was a wonderfully, wonderfully political answer. And if I'll do the journey work for you if you need me to, I'll campaign for a spot for you. Check in the boxes. The golf course seems like it could be a great fit. The numbers check

out on my end. So I think, yeah, I'll campaign for it if you all do that publicly. But what you've been in the game for this long and how can you, let's just say hypothetically that you find out you are gonna play on the team. How could you begin to prepare yourself to play in an event that will be so polar opposite of anything else you've ever teed it up in? How do you do you think you try to go out and play the same golf you normally play or do you try to steer into the environment and the whole different nerve situation that you be playing in?

Have you even given that an ounce of thought? I have actually. I definitely would talk to a lot of past Ryder Cup guys down here Davis, Zach, Kutcher, talked to Calcavecchia, my caddy, you said caddy for him. I'd try to talk to those many guys as I could that had played in Ryder Cup before and just get their take on it or any advice if they were in my shoes what kind of advice would they give me? But I know on the course now, I'm pretty, I show no emotion,

I try not to, that kind of comes from my mom wanting me to watch Fred Couples' Davis level in the course when I was a kid. And because I had a pretty bad attitude, I was a hot guy when I was a kid. So she was like, you need to watch Fred Couples' Davis level in the course. Those guys showed no emotion.

You don't know if those guys have made a triple or an eagle. That's how you need to be out there. So that's kind of how I've adopted this mentality on the course, but RyderCouple is a totally different thing. And I love, I really love Team golf and I want to get excited and I think it's going to bring out a, it would bring out a totally love playing soccer. We don't get to do that a whole lot on the PGA tour and we all probably have come from sports backgrounds where we played all these other sports and that's what we miss. And I feel like I'd be a great teammate but it could bring out a totally different side of me. I really don't know. I mean, I guess I did a little bit of the walker cut,

but you got to play into it. I mean, that's what it's all about. Playing into the crowd, getting rolled up. That sounds really fun at all. I just don't know how you channel that into playing your best golf, too. You know, I don't know how you marry the two things. I agree.

I agree. But I guess that's where you lean on guys who have done it before. Because I feel like Koochee and I are really close. He's helped me a lot over the years from the shark shootout stuff. I mean, he's been a great friend. And I feel like we have the same type of demeanor on the course. And he'd be a great guy to lean on. He's played in a lot of rider cups, a lot of presidents cups.

So he'd be a guy to really lean on and give me some advice on how to channel that because you're right. That's a totally different atmosphere. And I guess everybody's different and everybody's got to use it to their advantage of ultimately playing the best golf they can. Well, if I'm looking at the US team, we've talked a little bit about the Brooks Bryson thing going on Patrick Reed and Jordan Spieth and Captain Furek had you know a bit of a I don't know what you want to call what happened there in Paris So if I if I'm saying you know if I'm sensing you know kind of a little bit of difficulty in the US team room I can't help but ask but you've had Patrick Reed was a college teammate of yours

You guys have a I guess a bit of a history together. What's your, what's your relationship like? What is that history and what is your relationship like with Patrick Green? So Patrick and I are great friends now. We work with the same trainer on the road. So I see him a lot. I haven't played with him a while, but we're great friends now. I think he's, I don't know if grown up is the right word, but he's gotten a lot better.

He doesn't feel like everybody's out beginning now, which I like, because Patrick is a great guy. He's he's he's softened up a bit, which which I really like. But I've known Patrick since I was probably 12 or 13 years old, playing in junior tournaments. He was probably a year or two younger than me, but I remember playing with him in the Southern junior, actually at C Island when I was 13 or 14. So we get away back and obviously played him in the final round of the NCAAs and still water. Georgia versus Augusta State, he beat me two and one, which it wasn't the fact that I was playing him. I mean, it was the fact that we never

won a national championship when I was a Georgia. So that, that's one of the things that kind of sticks in my mind of, uh, I wish we won a national championship. We had one of the best teams, if not the best team, over the four years I was there. And if he was on our team my senior year, I mean, we would have no doubt won win that championship because he's an unbelievable match play player Unbelievable player, but he would be a guy. I would have no problem playing with in the rider cup with his craftiness with his short game with his putting with his will to win. I mean, I rarely seen a guy with with the will to win like he has and That comes out at the rider cup that comes out in team events. I witnessed

it firsthand when he beat me at the NCAA Championship. I mean, he's tough. And I would have no problem getting paired with him. I think personally, him and Bryson will be a great matchup with Bryson smash and drivers. Patrick can play from from anywhere you can literally put him in a trash can and it will figure it out how to chip it up there at three feet. He's one of the best chippers I've ever seen so I think they would be actually an awesome pairing. I think they get along really well. You could say they have the same type personalities of being a little bit of the outcast. I don't really see it that way, but I'm sure the public sees it that way of they can kind of use that fuel to help their team.

What, just total hypothetical here from a golf playing perspective. Would it be difficult to be paired with Bryson in ForSums in all shot? Just thinking about like if there I think I could characterize one player in professional golf that it makes the most sense that this guy should just play his own ball. Just style a play and just the whole you can call it scientific method of calculating and all that thing. It seems like he would be extremely difficult not even from a personality perspective to play with in ForS. That is totally for me sitting at home, you as one of his peers. Am I on to something there or is that totally just kind of something you could easily adjust to? That would be tough. He would be a great best ball partner. That's

what I'm thinking. He's going to make a ton of birdies. But for me, alternate shot, I feel like you need to play with a guy that plays a similar game as you. Because it's tough of Bryce, and you can't club off of him, because he hits probably two clubs longer than you. You have no idea if he's trapping it, or he's taking some off. You have no idea what he's doing. So yeah, for me, that would be tough playing with a guy in Alternate Shot. But that's what I'm saying. I think Patrick would love that. He would love that challenge of like, hey, hit it as close to the green as you can.

I've got one of the best short games on the PGA tour. I can get up and down from anywhere. So I think they would be actually a dominant bearing. Man, you can be excited for the Ryder Cup. I thought I was already excited, but that's a good insight. So Mother, we got a lot of events to cover for you this year, but I, I'd imagine there's a certain jitter that comes over you when you stand on the tee for the first playoff hole of a tour event. Compare that to standing on the eighth, eighth playoff hole of a tour event.

Wait, wait, did you get a certain level of, of exhaustion of nerves to the point where, you know, it doesn't even feel like you're necessarily playing for a championship anymore. Take us, take us to the travelers this year. Well, when I knew what it meant, making the putt on 18 regulation, I knew 17 was going to be hard to birdie. That panel on 18 was tough to get to with how downwind it was. So I knew making that putt in regulation 18 was going to be tough to beat. I didn't think I knew making that pot in regulation 18 was going to be tough to beat. I didn't think I knew it could probably tie and it was going to be tough to beat, but I was playing on

Jason Day that day and he was awesome. After I made that pot, he was like, just stay ready. I know you're one shot in the lead right now, but just stay ready, be up for anything. So, I mean, that's pretty cool for, yeah, like that, to give me that advice and assign my scorecard once straight to the range. I knew anything could happen. And I heard the roar of Cramer making put on 18. But definitely the first playoff hole,

you're a little more nervous than as you keep going. On the eighth playoff hole, I wasn't nervous, and I was just ready to get done. I was ready to end it. But it was easy to get tired long, long day out there. But my caddy Eric kept me in it. The fans were incredible. They were just like punch drunk by the end of it. Yeah, they took alcohol.

Amazing. Alcohol sales probably cut off. And they were just kind of just kept the energy flowed somehow. Yeah, but that gave us the energy to keep going. I mean, they didn't really want to see anybody win. I mean, the other Chant and Cramer out there, which added a little more fuel to me of, I want to prove these people wrong or win this to just

and spite of them yelling Cramer, but it was a lot of fun. I mean, I had not played with Cramer before. I've been around him a few times. He's a great guy. And it was one of those long calculated boxing matches where yeah, we didn't make any birdies, but I thought it was a great grind. We both showed a lot of heart. He made some clutch spots. I made some clutch spots. We were both having a lot of fun. And luckily I made that put on the A-fold or we could still be playing right now. Can you compare getting in contention these days

with maybe earlier in your career? Does it ever get easier? Does it get less nerve-wracking? Is there a sense of, you know, I've been here before, I've done this before, and it's not going to be the end of the world either way with this outcome? I'm wondering if you could just share, I never know what I'm looking at when I'm watching a player in contention, like what they're dealing with, you know, it's because everyone's

always so stoic, but what's going on inside? Yeah, it definitely does get easier because my first couple of years on tour, you know how much a top 20 finish gets or a top 10 finish. And on the 18th, holo, a guy could be in 13th place and he has a birdie putt to get in 7th. And Hell yeah, he's going to be nervous because he knows how many FedEx got points come with that. He knows how much money comes with that. But it definitely changes as you get older, as you put yourself more in those spots of when you're in 12th place, you're now, now I feel like when I'm in 12th place, I'm in 15th place, I'm trying to keep moving up. I'm way more aggressive than I used to be of like settling,

like I don't want to drop back any spots or I want to kind of hold my position. Now, now I'm like, I just want to get in contention. I want to have a chance to win. Yeah, it changes for sure. I mean, I was pretty nervous, I would say, coming down 18 at the US Open this past year because I knew if I made Eagle at 18 that I'd have a chance to win the tournament.

And that kind of changes everything. So yeah, as you move through your career, as you get more experience, as you put yourself in position, so much more, it definitely gets easier. And I think that's why you see a lot of the top players keep getting intention and keep pushing it. like that really all they're satisfied with is winning. If they don't win, it doesn't mean anything to them. And to be at that place in the game is pretty cool. And I know everybody would like to be at that place in the game. Well, what is it? I want to talk about major championships. You know, you've had two top five finishes the last two US opens here. And feel like you'll have some some good perspective on it, especially when it comes to guys like Brooks guys like

Louis that have just seemed to no matter what rise towards the top of leaderboards by the end of the week in major championships. In what ways, I think I can probably name a couple of ways just from viewing, but from playing what what's different about major championships in terms of what you're being tested on, what skills are rewarded and honestly, why we see a lot of the same names improve at tournaments when everyone is trying to truly peak. Yeah, that's a great question. One that I've kind of asked myself over the past probably seven or eight years that I've I feel like I've gotten more of a handle on on why

The same guys compete in every single major why why the cream rises to the top Because it is truly harder. It the courses are a lot more demanding the pins are tougher It it benefits the guy who Not not plays safe safe but plays smart. That you have to know where the green lights are, you have to know where the yellow lights are, and you have to abide by that. Because if you start playing too aggressive, if you get on the wrong side of it, if you miss a green, it's way harder to get up and down. And then it's, it's kind of a mental challenge of, then do you press it the next hole or do you stick to your strategy? And major championships are just a whole different animal of, you've got to stay in it, you've got to keep plugging away at it. I've heard not from Tiger himself, but

kind of how he treats majors of the first day he's just trying to get it around, have a good round, and then like each day he kind of ramps it up and gets himself in contention, come Saturday, and then he presses the pedal down. I feel like a lot of guys try to get off to such a good start to try to press the pedal down too early and it can go either one way or the other. And a lot of times it goes the other way and they shoot themselves out of the tournament. So you got to be such a... It's patient.

I don't know how to say it. Patience. Patience is what it is. And I've just learned that the past couple of years of playing in more majors and figuring out how to attack these golf courses and looking at the guys who keep continuing to play well. And it's kind of the same recipe of,

yeah, Brooks got a lot of heat for saying that it's easier to win majors than it is regular tour of that. But I'm starting to Understand now why he said that and what his mentality is going into majors because a lot of people shoot themselves Out of the tournament playing trying to play the same way they play at travelers or John deer But it's a totally different mindset. It's a totally different patients level and Until you get yourself in that and think the way they think, then it's hard to contend in those majors because everybody makes it a bigger deal than it is and

until you make it point A to point B trying to play the whole health design or strategy, I think that's why I speak those so well in majors. That's why he does so good at Augusta because he knows how to play that golf course and he could be playing good. He can be playing bad going in the tournament, but he knows how to play that golf course and he knows the mentality that it takes to put himself in contention for that tournament. And I don't really know how to how to put this in the words. Maybe you can a little bit better than I can, but it just it feels like major championships are set up better to separate players out, right? And the PGA tour, I don't want to say it's almost more nerve-racking, but it almost feels like it's going to be, it's almost set up to be, we kind of would rather have a lot of

people in the running near the end of this tournament. And that's why I kind of think it turns into a little bit of putting contest from time to time. And the tour wanting a bit of a somewhat uniform set up week to week in terms of green speeds. Pins are probably pretty similar. Of course, the course they're kind of tucked in corners, but in smoother spots than you may see in major championships. Am I am I right in saying all those things and how would you kind of define the difference in the tests. Yeah, I think you're 100% correct. And you can kind of see it every year at Augusta, where I feel like the first couple days of Augusta, the pins are way harder than they are on the weekend.

Because they want to separate guys. They want to see who's at the top of the game and who's not. And that's where the patient's comes in the play. If you do get one or two over to Augusta, you may feel like you're out of the tournament, but you do get one or two over to Gusta, you may feel like you're out of the tournament, but you're really not. You just got to keep plugging along and wait for those green lights of holes you can get. And I see it every player Gusta, and I'm starting to figure out more and more of, that's the

mindset that they're, that's the player that they're trying to cater to is a guy who has the most patience and understands that you can't win an on Thursday and Friday, but you can sure enough shoot yourself out of terminal Thursday or Friday. Patrick Kaly said something once on this podcast about how he plays tournament golf and how he kind of releases himself from the result and kind of tries to view it through the lens of like whatever happens in this tournament is a reflection of what I've done to this point, right? And it's kind of, I find that interesting. I can never channel that myself for a tournament,

but I would, if you could channel that, it sounds like it'd be really freeing. One, does that make any sense to you? And do you, too, is that like a familiar feeling that you try to replicate in any ways? Yeah, I mean, I think that's a mindset. I definitely take with me to the putting green of when I'm over a six footer, when I'm almost over a crucial pot. I'm really thinking about, man, I've hit a thousand of these this past week. Like, I've put in the work just let my mind go and I know my stroke's great. I know I've been reading these things great. So just let it go. And I think that's what he's talking about is the work that he puts in the week's leading up to it. And Patrick

works hard on anybody, and that's probably the most calculated guy I've ever been around, which I love. I love that about him. But I think that's what he's getting at, is it does set your mind free of not trying to grind too much of saying, I'll put in the work on, know I'm in a great spot and just let it happen. Well, we'll get you out of here on this. And the sale has pretty much already been made by a friend of yours Keith Mitchell

when I asked him about C Island Life, what the appeal of C Island is and why, why Torporos flock there. But I want to ask you that, see if you have any different answers to as to what the main pitch of of C Island life is like and you know whether or not you're a made man in the mafia yet. So I've been down here for about 10 years. I moved on here right when I graduated

from Georgia, but I grew up in a small town. Multitore, Georgia, probably three hours west of here. Coming out of college, I kind of had some choices of Atlanta, Chattanooga, where I went to high school, or here. And what I really like about this place is, I don't feel like we're treated differently than the doctors or lawyers or any people in this community. We're just another resident of St. Simon's. And that's what I like about it is everybody's pulling on

you, you feel like you have the support. And, but when we go to the golf course, we're just another person. I mean, you kind of have a lot of people to deflect off of, of, of, there's so many tour pros here that people aren't really star struck or talk to you about golf a whole lot. But I love how laid back it is. I mean I live probably a mile from where I practice and work out because when you're on the road for four or five

weeks in a row and I come back here, I don't really want to do a whole lot. I don't want to drive a whole lot. I don't want to sit at red lights. You can always get into restaurants here. It's like our own little community of, it's just a great place. Go to the beach, go fishing, go hunting, harming, and patent, HUD. Those guys love to hunt a lot. I'll go with them some.

But it's just a great spot. Super laid back, super low key, and just you feel like you can breathe here. You feel like it, everything just relaxes and You can you can take a breath regroup and then get ready to go back on the road again Sounds like a sounds like a golf utopia. Honestly, you can't you can't live in C Island and not get better at golf Also just between the practice facilities and all those courses that you you're doing something a lot very wrong If you don't get better at golf and see Island. I agree.

I agree with this. Awesome. Well, best of luck in the upcoming playoffs. Thanks a ton for joining and detailing your season and career and all that. Again, I'll keep the campaigning going for your Ryder Cup spot, so leave that with me. And yeah, best of luck and we'll hopefully do it again sometimes soon. I'm sorry, appreciate it, man. Thanks for thanks for having me on.

You bet, cheers. Give it a right club. Be the right club today. Yes. That is better than most. How about in? That is better than most. Better than most.

Better than most. Better than most. Better than most.