No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - NLU Podcast, Episode 535: Anirban Lahiri

Episode Date: March 23, 2022

Fresh off a great run at Sawgrass, Anirban Lahiri joins the pod to recap his week at the Players, his journey from India to the PGA Tour, struggling with his game and rediscovering his form, competing in the Presidents Cup and a ton 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 Laying Up podcast. Sully here, got an interview with honor bond Lahiri coming up here shortly. One to get this out last week, obviously after his incredible run at the players championship, he had a busy week of media as you may expect.

Recorded this this past weekend, talked a lot about the players championship, emerging from a little bit of a slump. What it's been like through COVID, not getting enough coaching, probably that he needs, not getting the swing hygiene, which is the word he uses, which we talk a lot about. I'll tell you on his backstory, how we got into golf, president's cup experiences. This was, this is a really good one. He is a very interesting dude and a great personality. And I greatly enjoyed chatting with him. This episode is brought to you by our friends at Travis Matthew Golf season heating up. We got to tell you about the launch of Travis Matthew's heater collection, including the heater polo. It's a new performance polo designed to make sure you are performing and feeling your best. In fact, if you're looking for endorsements before you try it yourself, the heater polo in its

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Without any further delay, here is honor bonn the hearing. So how does this week compare in terms of a very specific question? On a weekly basis, are you checking to see when that pay check hits the bank account and was this week any different? It was a little bit different definitely. I do know it's a Monday finish so it's probably going to come in slightly later in the week but to be really honest with you, I was waiting to get that check out to my caddy more than anything else because you know he's earned it as much as I have but goes a much longer way for some of the guys who do what they do for us out there. I was going to say that I was gutted for you. I was rooting for you, but there couldn't have been a

better tournament in the history of golf maybe to finish runner-up in, right? No, no, not Blue you say that. Yeah, potentially, potentially, but I mean, among many of them, what was the highlight from this past week? It's hard to pick really, I think just the whole week, it's felt like forever. I mean, I remember the final round, Doug Gamed, and myself and Sebastian, we were on the 12th floor waiting to hit our T-shirts. And we're like, man, it feels like we've been here. I can't even remember when we started today.

And it was just one of those weeks that just never seemed to end. So to pick a highlights hard, but I'd say I'd pick any of those second shots into 11. I think that that whole for me was everything. Like it was incredible how I played that 11th hole, which I think that hole for me changed the tournament to be honest right from the first day to the last.

Which round was it when you, while it was in the air, you yelled at it to be so good? Because that got me off the couch, man. I was so excited. That was late Sunday evening. That was the last shot I hit on Sunday. We knew it was going to get called pretty soon. And I knew it was pretty tight.

And as soon as it came out, it just, it looked so good. I mean, I hit some incredible approach shots on that hole. And yeah, that firewood just took off on that left track just as I hope, and it just bled. I knew I did it just right. And I was, I was excited. You could tell, right? Yeah.

It, how do you, how do you marry this? So if I have it right, you had five miss cuts and a T 74 at the players and six starts prior to this coming off three miss cuts and a T something in the 70s. I believe at Bay Hill the week before that. Yeah. And I'm going to do. Yeah. Yeah. You turn around and almost win one of the biggest golf tournaments in the world. Does that sum up professional golf for anyone that doesn't do the day in and day out? Does that like you know you obviously have it in you? It's not there recently, but it can turn that quickly. Can you talk about that?

Yeah, I think I mean we've seen it. We've seen it plenty, you know, we've seen so many and I mentioned that in my, you know, three tournament presser with the Indian media specifically and they were like asking me, how are you gonna turn around? I'm like, look, I'm doing the right thing that you gotta keep at it. And when it clicks, it clicks, when it switches,

it switches, and then you just gotta put, you know, your pedal to the metal. And so many guys have come, broken these crazy streaks and just gone out at one. I know James Hahn, dated a few years ago, where he was, you couldn't catch a break in next thing, you know, he went as well as far ago. And he's not alone, there's a lot of us who've done it and it

happens in the world of professional golf, more often than people would think it possible too. But going back to what he said to Ali, it comes down to that, it's like you know what you're doing, you know what you're working on, and you know that, you know, I just need that one thing to click or I need that one thing to kind of just, you know, hit the puzzle and then I'm good to go and that kind of happened for me last week.

What is the one thing to click then? For me personally, it was just my own play. You know, I spoke about it at length at different times during the week. But, you know, when I was just looking back at how I was playing, I actually looked at the last five events as a block. And when I started at Phoenix, my game was kind of all over the place. Lots of things were not working, but I was driving it good. And then my recording was awful and then I managed to fix that. I got to Riviera and I had a brain

wave on something that Seekman, James Seekman is my coach, you know, sort of game coach, and something he had asked me to do. And then I remember, Thursday evening, we were there to pretty much start at Taimanai, my caddy. Just doing that one thing that I like was, oh man, I got to do this and we were there and then that kind of just put my phone exactly where I needed to be, I gotta do this and people there. And then that kind of just put my foot in exactly where I needed to be, I started seeing it good. So we managed to fix that and then fast forward to Honda. We actually did pretty much everything good.

I hit a lot of fairways, I followed great, I tripped great, but soon as I hit the fairway, I'd get a wedge or a head on my hand and I'd just go white because I had no idea where I was gonna go. I was completely out of sync with my hands. More of the same at Bay Hill made some progress. When back and forth with my coach, back and forth with my fitter, Rusty Estes, who's been out here a long time. And then I got to the point kind of end of Bay Hill, weak where I was happy with how I was

swinging it, but just not happy with how it was coming out. And then we made some changes late Monday evening, last week of the players, where we just kind of messed around with the swing weights. We literally got through everything, we checked lives, lost length, we've done everything that was to be done. And then my Rusty's like, look, you know, your swing rates have gone up with your woods, but we've left them as they were for the last six or seven years with your ions, you know, it's worth just moving those up as well and kind of making them proportional to your woods and just see how they come out because you're hitting a woodspray, obviously. So let's try that and we tried it and you know, I made the same

swing, but the ball actually came out on the planet so Tuesday Wednesday was great for my confidence I started hitting golf shots I wasn't just trying to dive it around and you know just keep it in place so from then on it was I was just feeling I came in with no expectations but knowing fully well that I'm you know on top of a lot of different departments of my game and then it was it was just about hitting one shot at a time, spent a lot of time on my process and routine with my performance guy back in India. And obviously that showed up because I was able to do that

through everything that happened in the last eight 10 days. You've won for the listeners that are as familiar. You've won a lot of tournaments all around the world. You've been in contention a lot of times. What is it like getting back in contention when you haven't been there in a while? Are you able to draw off of old memories of it?

Does it feel like, oh yeah, this is background supposed to be? Does it feel a little out of place? What is it like kind of when it hasn't happened in a while to be back in that spot? It's a really good question because I was kind of wondering myself going into Monday Monday how I would respond Simply because it's been so long. It's been felt like you know a different lifetime from when I was actually leading from the front and you know People had to come get me sort of

And and you know I wasn't trying to miracle a 64 or 62 on a Sunday to try and win, but yes, I think One thing is that I have been on that stage before, I've been up there on the leaderboards at majors before, I've played, you know, whatever event, the biggest events that are all involved have been a part of it. I've had successes and failures both. So it wasn't new, it wasn't, you know,

I wasn't like, oh my God, what am I gonna do? Everyone's watching me because that's happened before. What was different for me was all the water under the bridge, all the experience of actually not being there or not playing well. I'd really cherished, enjoyed, and savored every minute, every moment that I was there. And at the end of the day, I kind of knew

that I was playing well. I knew I was confident. I had the belief in my game. And I know from playing golf for long enough now that, you know, in a situation like that on a, I was going to say Sunday, but on a Monday like that, all you got to do is, you know, put it in play, give yourself a lot of good looks at Buddy, you make a couple of paths, and you start getting that momentum going. If you're going to minimize mistakes, it's going to be hard for someone to come catch you. So, you know, my mindset was just set to, okay, this is what I need to do, these are my plans, this is what I'm going to execute,

let's just go do that. And I was able to do it, I was able to block out a lot of the noise, a lot of, you know, the stage because it was a very big stage. But I really didn't pay any, any heat to that, I just went out and did what I wanted didn't pay any, any heat to that. I just went out and did what I wanted to do. And I was really proud about that. Because it'd be so easy for me to start looking around and saying, oh my god, I'm here at the players. And this is the prize first.

And these are the world ranking points. And there's a lot to play for, obviously. But at the end of the day, I just played golf, and I'm really happy about that. That's something that us sitting at home at least for me. I just played golf and I'm really happy about that. That's something that, you know, us sitting at home at least for me, I just don't know how you ever really actually do block all those things out, right?

Like, I know that's the secret, like, you have to do it, but how you actually do it, it's amazing to me. It's a lot of boring, repetitive, do the same thing over and over and do it better and cleaner and you know a little bit of you know Meditation and a little bit of yoga a little bit of focus band a little bit of Back and forth with you know guys who are really good at this who can help you with this and and a lot like I said Just doing it over and over again and doing it wrong enough number of times to kind of know that okay I got to avoid this and I got to avoid that and I just got to stick to this and I'm actually glad that

you know the players was the fifth week in a row for me because the only thing that I was consistent with leading up to it was my process and my routine so I didn't have to like warm that up that that machine was purring and and thank God it was because I needed it you know I needed all of that to just stay focused. I don't feel bad you know not knowing thank God it was because I needed it. You know, I needed all of that to just stay focused. I don't feel bad, you know, not knowing which day this was because it seems like you're even confused as to which day was what.

But there was a point where you hit a shot. I think it was into 14 and the microphones picked you up, saying something about making poor decisions, stop making poor decisions or something like that. What was that about? Like what were you telling yourself there? And why would, I guess, under pressure, at something we hear commentators talk a lot about

as, you know, the sign of pressure is making poor decisions. What were your poor decisions? And how does pressure play into that? So literally, so I'll tell you when this was, this was Monday afternoon. This was probably the 67th, I guess, whole of the tournament.

And I knew going to bed on Sunday night that given the conditions, given the rain, given the amount of spin, we were going to get off the greens, given the wind, the start, stop, nature of everything we did, you were going to get a lot of shots where you could hit, you could hit a iron or any shot full bore, or you could hit one with a lily-ardage off, or you could hold one into the wind, or you could plight one down through the wind. You almost had four options on every shot, just given the conditions.

You know, if it's rock hard and it's bouncy, you don't have that choice. You've got to moonball everything. When the conditions were like the way they were, you have options. And I knew that coming down to decisions, I'll rewind a little bit, the shot I hit on eight that led to the double.

I was again in between hitting like a soft firewood and just trying to hit this bullet four and to the front half of the green. And I ended up going with the four and because the day before I just hit this unbelievable four and to like three feet on in the third round and because the day before I just hit this unbelievable foyer to like three feet in the third round and I was just feeling it and I got over it and I tried to hit this thing so hard and we all know what happened. I just dug it a little bit and then the wind took it and blah blah blah.

So I knew at that point of time that okay I made a bad swing but more than the bad swing I made a bad decision. It'd be much easier for me to execute a soft five word than try to hit a full bowl four on in those conditions. So, I made a mental note that, look, you just make a good decision, and then regardless of how you execute it, you can live with that. But if you make a poor decision that leads to bad execution, then, you know, that's unforgivable. Or those are the mistakes you want to avoid. Fast forward to the 14th hole, I had 160, 161, or so to that flag.

And that's the soccer flag. We all know that's the one flag you have to respect on 14. Sebastian Munoz hit like 30 seconds before me. He took a club extra, went long. I think he had like 25 feet past it, which is the smart play. I was too back. And I'm thinking, I've got to try and make three.

I'm gonna have to try and stuff it. His reigns enough where it's not gonna take a massive bounce. So I try to absolutely just jump out of my shoes and smash a nine iron. And unfortunately for me towards the end of the tournament, every time I try to hit something hard, I blocked it out right. And I hit a lot of blocks on that back nine, whether it was 13, 14, 17, I'm not 17, 18, you know,

I hit a few blocks and I blocked that chart instead of just hitting a smooth eight iron, it's just holding it up and maybe going, you know, 15 feet past the flag. So as soon as I made that swing, I was like, that's a bad decision, Paan. You know, you know, you could have just hit that smooth eight iron, you're putting good enough, where if you give yourself 15 feet of the hill, chances are very high that you're gonna make it.

So, and I hit it in the singular worst place that you could hit it. You got up it down. I hit that chip in the practice round, I think seven times, and I did not hit it in the singular worst place that you could hit it. You got up it down. I hit that chip in the practice round, I think seven times. And I did not hit it inside 25 feet. But the big difference was it had just rained. And that actually allowed me to hit that shot and allowed the ball to stop her at it.

Because if you go there on a regular day without any moisture on the green, you have no chance of hitting it inside 20 feet from where I did. So I was I was I was I was pissed not so much in the short, but at at the process leading into it. So yeah, that was that was what that reaction was. It's and it's amazing how you know how many times you got to do that over 17 holes, that whole process, right, of making that decision. Yeah, and it you know they actually they did a great job capturing that on TV, but not all of them get captured. And that's, that's kind of the internal chess match that's, that's going on, you know, throughout the whole

thing. Going back to, let's go back to the 17th hole. Your state, do you know exactly where you're standing in the tournament when you go hit that shot? Where are you aiming it compared to where you landed it? Can't Smith had a similar comment on that? And at any point are you thinking about like, what could come in, what would happen if you go backwards in this place or are you solely set on trying to win this tournament? I'll take you exactly through what was going on

and leading up to it as well. On 16, I hit a bad T-shirt. I laid up to a really good number. I had to hit it. I had a hundred yards or so to the flag. I was trying to pitch it about six or seven past it. And in my head, I'm trying to make this one of six, one of each swing with my 54 degrees sandwich.

And I make this swing, I'm like, oh man, that was a really good swing. And that ball probably went 98 yards. I missed it by 10 yards. And it spun off to the front edge. And as soon as I hit that short, and I saw it went, I just looked at my caddy, I looked at Tim, and it's fun off to the front edge and as soon as I hit that shot and I saw where it went I just looked at my caddy, looked at Tim and I said Tim, I need to eat something

because my energy levels are dropping, that ball should have gone 8-9 yards further. I think I'm beginning to fatigue because I made a good swing on that, that ball went nowhere. So Tim immediately pulls out a bar, just shuts it down my throat, I'm trying to eat. So, I can feel my energy levels. It's just beginning to go down. Obviously, there's adrenaline in the system, but there's also the fatigue of playing all that golf all that time in those conditions.

So, when I get up to the 17t, I'm just trying to feel like what's going on in my body, how far it can actually hit it, given that I have a adrenaline and the fact that I'm kind of losing a little bit of speed. So when we got to the tee, I didn't do anything, I let Timmy get the number for me. I had 136 to the flag exactly and I had 141 five past it. I normally hit my pitching wedge about 140 yards. If I really jump on it and smash it, I could probably hit it 42 or 44. But just with the way I was feeling, I was like, this is great because I can I can hit a hard wedge and there's no way even

with the adrenaline that I have, it's going to go more than 140 hours. It's not possible. So it actually made my job easy. There's no way I was going to try and chip a nine iron, not in that situation. You know, you just you have to take something out of play and you take back out of play every single time. So I pulled the wedge and I just asked him to walk away. And my stock shots usually a little draw, even though it didn't draw on 18 when I really needed it to the most. And I just stood at that little bunker. And as I just just, it's in the middle of that trap, just make a range,

140 swings straight at it. Hopefully it just comes out dead straight and it catches that bridge. If it draws, it's still in high. And I still actually have a legitimate chance of making it. I knew I was three back. But I saw Cam Smith just stuff it while I was waiting on 16. I saw him make the part, I mean, I don't think he missed anything inside 20 feet anyways.

So I knew that, you know, it was very unlikely that Cam was going to collapse on 18, just so just this zone he was in. But I knew that, you know, it's the place championship is the 18th hole, anything's possible. So all I wanted to do was actually give myself a legitimate chance at making Bernie and I just hit that wedge as well as I could just straight at the trap. I didn't even think of anything else. It came out good luckily it caught that region and came down to where I was hoping it would and it felt so good to make that part. Well, that's what when, when do things change?

When do you learn that he's made Bogie? Do you know that before you tee off on 18? So when I was reading my part on 17, I had my back, I was facing the tee box. So I'm on the other side of the hole, just looking at my part and I could hear these murmurs in the stands, like people going, oh, but I have no idea. And I heard, hear these murmurs in the stands like people going oh but you know I but I have no idea I could and I and I heard oh he's in the water and I'm like could

be Paul Casey it could be it could be anyone and at that point of time for just that refunds to them like someone's hidden though I'm like hang on what are you doing you you need to read this part you know the thing is breaking a lot and I'm just trying to figure out what speed am I going to put on it. I'm not going to try and you know, bang it into the back of the cup because it's got 18 inches of speed. I could have a six footer coming back. So in my head, I'm trying to do calculus, trying to think of, so I want to drip this in the hole.

How high do I hit it? I want to make sure it gets to the hole. I'm not leaving this short. And it's a hard thing to do in that situation. So I just got back to my process. Obviously, I make that part with perfect speed. It's exactly the way I saw it. And then when I'm walking up to my carry,

he's like, we're still in this. We're still in this. He didn't tell me then. And then when we were walking through the tunnel, getting through the 18th, while I was in the tunnel, Timmy is like, funny, stripped in the water, we still got a chance, let's do this. And then when I got to the T, obviously I saw Cam taking a drop. So I knew he was, you know, now going to be heading for. So yeah, that was kind of the sequence of how things kind of moved on. I got to the 18th T and

my strategy for the last three years on 18th when you know take the right trees out of play. People try and take the right, left water out of play for me. I try and take the right trees out of place. I always hit a club that doesn't really get to that corner where it brings the right trees in place. So, you know, I've hit two wine in the past. I've hit four wine downwind.

I've hit five wood, I've hit three wood. and this week it was three wood because it was soft. So I hit three wood, the first three rounds in the fairway every single time, when I got on the tee box, I was like, I can't hit three wood, I mean, just give me the driver. I'm not gonna, I just give me the driver, I'm just gonna send this one. And so yeah, that was that. It was perfect. I mean, that's where it's, that's a perfect explanation there. I'm wondering like, how do you stand up there?

And every time I'm, you know, challenged with a really difficult shot, I try to get in the mindset like, hey, just make a great swing. Like just hit a great shot, right? Don't think about all the trouble that's there. Like, make a hit a great shot. And that's what it looked like for me

when you hit that shot. It was like, this ball is ending up in the center of the fairway. No matter what happens here. Give me the driver. Bang. Let's go. I mean, I mean, I mean, that was one of the longest drives down there on 18, I think, for the day. I have no idea. I have no idea. I was, I probably had no idea about a lot of fucking Sunday anyways. I'm not happy about that. So, I mean, you walk off, you know, you block your, your approach in, in which it was not that far away if you watch Doug give After you saw Doug Gimsball, does that did that change?

You know any of the line you wanted to take into that shot or you knew exactly yeah We've all hit that shot. Yeah, you know in that you know That was my six to seven go around that song and we wanted that shot in the practice room You know what it we know what it does because that's where we hit it when the pins back right? that started the practice on. We know what it does because that's where we hit it when the pins back, right? That's where everyone puts from. When you have that 21 on four right pin

and you would have seen that on, I think it was the first day where they put it up there. We probably had 90% of puts from that very bold. So we know that all you got to do is hit it anywhere on that ridge and it all funnest down. So it's more about picking a club because you can go long and still have it come back, you can go right and have it still come back. The only thing that doesn't reach the hole is if it's you know anything less than pin high.

So for me it was important that I hit it at least pin high to just pass pin high because even if you go long and right it still comes back but because I kind of just came out of that iron a little bit it kind of went it kind of took off in a direction where the wind actually hurt it instead of helping it. I just needed that wind to help it and ride it a little bit but instead of riding it it kind of rode it, rode it opposite back into it and even on the line that I hit it, if I hit it another four yards, it still ends up in Doug's four line. So, one of the most disappointing on shots I've hit in my life.

Yeah. So, when you walk off the green there, you, from my, where I'm sitting, you played your butt off, you had really one bad, one mistake, the T-shot on eight, in the final round, you shot shot 69 you shot a back nine about four well one that really cost you to you know that one cost you two shots but you had no other bogies in a final round playing the final group of the players are you able to or at what point are you able to process what you've just achieved versus bouncing that versus the disappointment

and coming up one shot short. I think for me it's just released. It's safe to say that I've played 98% of my best goals before I came to the future tour, which is why you know going into Monday and going into that situation nobody gave you a

chance. You know most people said, you know, he's played really well. Had suffered for being gotten this far. But if I was to look at my career from 2012 through 15, which was mostly in Asia and Europe, I mean, I understand the levels of golf are not comparable at all, but the quality of golf I was playing when I was playing my best was very similar to what I did this weekend and this Monday. So it wasn't like unfamiliar territory for me in terms of how I played. I know I play like that when I'm playing good. I play like that. I don't really care whether I'm playing for 20 million or if I'm playing back home in India for $50,000 on him. I just played golf, I love playing golf, I love being competitive, I love feeling golf shots and just being in the moment and enjoying that. So for me it was more relief, it wasn't like, oh yes, I did it or you know I just made the biggest check up from my career. Yeah, I know all those things happen. But the biggest thing that happened for me is I played

the way I used to play when I was playing my best seven or eight years ago and that is way more important to me than everything else that comes with playing so well at a big event, whether it's my world ranking or whatever else it is. Those things take care of themselves if you keep playing good goals. For me, the fact that I wasn't trying to backdoor on a final round, the fact that I was the one

who was leading going in in and granted I got behind early because Cam got off to a heater. I didn't really affect me, I didn't really change how I played. I didn't fire at any pins that I didn't want to fire at and I fired at every pin that I wanted to fire at regardless of what was going on. Except for maybe a team which is when you have to do what you have to do. And that's how I want to play golf. And that's fun, man. And you can do that. That's enjoyable.

That's why we do this. So for me, that was way more valuable than all the other things that come with it. Because that's something now I can take forward. And basically trying to snowball this and keep playing like this out here, which I have not done justice at all, you know, to the time that I've spent out here on this tour, because I haven't played nearly anywhere near how I can play. And last week was an example of how I can play. Most people haven't seen it, so the like what's going on. But when I spoke to my friends back home, I spoke to other people who've seen me play like that. They're like,

oh man, finally, you finally showed up, you know, you have been waiting for you to do this. Take any long enough. So they were more like, thank, thank, thank, F and God that you're now back to how you used to play and you're not going to just go and waste your time. So it's two different perspectives. A quick break here to check in with our friends at Cash App. It is the easiest way to send, spend, and save your money, easiest way to pay your friends back. Collect money from your friends. You can do all kinds of things from it all at once. You can buy Bitcoin on it for as little as $1. You can invest directly in stocks, whatever stock you want. And it's got a ton of financial information. It's even got analyst recommendations for stocks.

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Basically, the more people that use the code, no, hang up and registering, not only are you getting a free $15, but you're also helping to support junior golf. Again, code, no, hang up at cash app. Let's get back to honor bond, the hearing. So it sounds like based on what you said, you know, the competition is different coming over to the PJ tour yet. The way you played is also not the same. You did not pick up your game and translate it over here.

Why would you say that is? Is it, you know, does it come from seeing different styles of play over here? The golf course is different. Is it the style, tournament different? What would you say has contributed to you to not carrying the game you had over to the States? I think the biggest difference for me, of course, you have the, you know, you have the usual answers of the

crashes are different, the setups are different, all that. Yes, but you know, I've been here long enough, I had just stood to that. I live here now, I've been here, this is home for me, I've been here six years. So those were just lame excuses at this point of time. To be honest with you, I just never, I've never gotten comfortable with how I'm playing golf with my swing. I think, you know, when I was living in India, playing hard up in India,

I see my coach a lot more. And, you know, he's been Vijay Devachas, my coach back in India. He's been my coach now for 20 years, since I was 14, but we just had a system where I would play at ornament, I would come back and he would see me immediately. And it's not like I would get a lesson, he'd just see me because I'd be at the range and he'd be like, hey, you picked up that bad habit

again and you're both positions out of whack. So just just put two shafts down, just do that and you'll be fine or he'd say like, just fine angles off, we have left hand grips getting a little strong. It could be something as minor as fundamental as that. And I would have really good hygiene with my swing. And I think I lost that hygiene after coming here. And I'm not very good at working them as that. There's a lot of guys out here you'll see on the range, they'll put their lineman sticks in the ground,

they'll put a phone on, they'll take videos, they'll do it, I can't do it like that. I grew up in India learning in a very old school fashion. I used to have a caddy with a shag bag, and I would basically laser him and say, okay, you go at 145. And every ball I hit, I would actually see one, two, three steps of here, one, two steps on like two long,

two short, two left, two right. And my brain got wired like that. Every single shot I hit in practice, I would get feedback. And then coming here, you're looking at 200 yards wide, you know, massive three-foot ball field with fairways. And you're hitting shots. And I kind of lost that feel. I lost that

ability to really connect with exactly what I was doing because I would see it land. I'm like, damn, I can't laser it. It's in a little hollow or it's there. And I don't know how far that went or I don't know where I was aiming. So there's nothing to aim at. So there were those kind of challenges and they still remain. And those are the things that kind of made me feel more disconnected with how I play. I'm a very intrinsic kind of player, not very left-brain in terms of mechanics or in terms of technique. And you could probably see it, because a lot of times I'll hit a shot if I try and hit a cut or a draw. I'll make a swing that looks ugly on TV or like, oh my god, what kind of a finish is that? Or he's trying to save it with his hands. But the ball goes from point A to point B.

That's all I cared about. And I think I kind of lost a lot of that over the years coming here. So I spent about 40 days in India in this off season with my coach. I was mentally hitting rock bottom in the off season last year saying, you know, if I'm going to keep playing golf this bad, I don't even want to play it. Because, you know, if I, if I'm going to keep playing golf this bad,

I don't even want to play because, you know, I know what, how good I can play and I'm playing so bad and I've been playing so bad for so long. I don't want to just keep coming out here and grinding and finishing, you know, T55 or T45 or missing the cut by a shot and I know I'm playing like five, six levels below what I can do. So I went back and took some extended time off and actually spent a lot of time just golfing with my friends and my buddies and you know playing for $3 and $4 and just playing for Raging Rights. And by the end of my trip back home I was you know making 9 and 10 and 11 birdies around and I'm they're like okay now you're starting to play more like how you play it. So why don't you just go back and do the same thing? So yeah, you know, it's been a process

where I've been trying to find my love for what I do, which is play good. If you don't play good, you don't love what you do. And you have to find a way to start loving what you do. So whatever you need to do to play better. So that's kind of been the journey what I've been kind of been the journey I've been on last few months. That's super interesting about your coach, I'd say, in terms of, you know, like with regular business, even there's things that happen when you're in an office together, not everything can be done

through a scheduled meeting, right? If you're, where if you're like with your coach, if you are scheduling a meeting for a FaceTime lesson or something like that, it's might be because it's gotten to the point where something's wrong versus Kessin. You need intervention. Yes, versus catching something along the way.

Like you said, of just touchpoint, you're doing this really good. You're swinging your best when you do this. I keep doing this right here. Just keep an eye on this. Seems to be a, that's a far way off from like, hey, something's going wrong. Help fix me. Is that a fair, fair to say? You know, which is why the word I use is hygiene.

Is this hygiene? You know, maintenance, yeah. It's, yeah, it's maintenance. It's just, and with me, 95% of the time, it's all fundamentals as it is with most people, but it's all, you know, create ball position, stance posture, you know, how's my balance?

And of course, when you look at a video and you say, oh, his club gone inside and it's a little bit across here, his hands a little bit bored. And I've seen that video to my coach and say, so, you know, I'm going here and he's like, hang on, get about two inches closer to the ball, get a little taller, get your weight here, just do that and send me a swing and I send him a swing and I'm on plane. I'm like, oh, wow, I'm back on plane. He's like, yes, because you're send him a swing and I'm on plane. I'm like, oh, wow, I'm back on plane. He's like, yes, because you're not in a position to put it on plane. You can't just take your hands and just shove it on plane.

You've got to be in the right position. So it's always with me. It's always been fundamental. It's always been pre-movement even. It doesn't have to do with movement. And I think that's the other thing I've found after coming to America. It's a session with a position, position, position, position, position. And everybody's just so involved in moving parts, which is why I keep going back.

I've been here, this is the land of God. You've got every instructor you could want to go to. And I've still stuck to working with him because he understands how I think and how I move. And a lot of times it's just, it's funny, he'd always tell me, he's like, if you look at the best sprinters in the world, they know how to run. But if they don't get on the starting block in the right position, they're not going to win the race.

So I need you to get into the right position because you know how to run. And I'm not going to teach you how to run, but I can't teach you how to be in the right position because you know how to run and I'm not going to teach you how to run But I can't teach you how to be in the right position every single time So you know, it's a really simple analogy that works for me. I always feel like an idiot trying to talk about some of these things with With players like at your level, but I I want to throw this at you I'll pick your brain and just react to this how you want but what I understand about the golf swing is your brain and just react to this, how you want. But what I understand about the golf swing is there is so much work to be done about positions, what you're talking about, right?

You, you, you, when you're playing your best, the club is in the right position. But when you're playing the, your best, you're not thinking about the club being in the right position. You are in a flow, right brain feel state yet. You need to have technical practice on the range or at home or whatever it is to check in on those positions yet at the same time Put in those reps so that when it goes in to tournament mode You don't have to think about that and that has become second nature and that to try to sum up that process in one sentence is insanity because it is a it's like a lifelong process right of Balancing all those things,

and I'm wondering if you have any perspective on any of that. I mean, it is everything you said, but you could make it simpler and you could break it down. And I still remember, like four years ago, my coach made all his students actually do an e-learning course on the process of learning. Like learning how to learn was the e-course he made all his students do. And it talks about deep learning and shallow learning and all kinds of different things.

But to again, give you a nut in a nut shell. What you talked about, can simply be broken down into two things. One is block practice and one is target practice. And block practice entails all your left brain, angles, positions, posture, ball position, my grip, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, the positions, feels, all those things come under block practice. And what he basically made all of us try and learn

was how do you go and how do you do block practice and then how do you transition to target practice and how do you transition back and forth and back and forth because when we play we're not in block mode, we're in target mode. But the target mode doesn't work unless substantial works been done in block mode. So even when I practice, it's like he'll tell me to put shafts down and do certain things, but he's like, all right, you have six minutes or seven minutes and you've got 15 balls. I don't care if it takes you half hour to hit 15 balls and to do this. Or if you want to just hit a few balls and warm up, then you have 78 minutes to do this. Once you've done it, I want the shafts out.

I want you to hit God Shots. The moment you can't hit God Shots, go back, do block. Once you're happy with the block, you built your confidence, get rid of it, go to target. And you keep interleaving, which is another technical term of learning, is you have to keep interleaving between the two in terms of the kind of practice you do, and you have to interleave within the areas of practice you do. So where they're short game here, long game here, putting here, bunker here. So you have to interleave within departments and you have to interleave within block and target. And that's how you get to a point where when you get on the golf course,

you're not really thinking about this or that you just playing. So that's something that he made, not just me, all of the students too. And I think that's really important because it's something that gets ignored. But yeah, you know, that's, I'm giving you in a nutshell exactly what you talked about. Yeah. Yeah, that's, I did, I didn't know you're going to have that detailed, it's spot on of a reaction to that. That's, that's, that's, that's incredible stuff. So some for people that aren't familiar about your background, like going back to how you got into the golf, what golf is like in India.

And I, I'm sure we could do a whole another couple hours on all that but where does that story start for you? Well my dad is now retired he was a doctor in the Indian Armed Forces and that's the reason why I play golf because India as most people know was the British colony until 1947 and one of the hangovers of the British colonizing India was golf forces and most of the contornments like we like to call our army bases and naval bases and Air Force bases. Most of the contornments all seem to have a golf course. So golf is actually quite a common and a popular pastime within the army in times of peace. So how I got introduced to the game was my dad would come back from the hospital at like two, three o'clock in the game was my dad would come back from the hospital at like

two, three o'clock in the afternoon and it was just common practice that everybody have lunch and go off and play nine hours, you know, till the sun came down. And I used to just tag along and just order around and that's how I started. I must have been about, first time I went to the golf course, I was about three and a half. So my dad was a gynecologist and he actually helped deliver the child of the local club pro at one of the army courses. So he's like, no sir, you've got to come out. I've got to introduce you to the game. You've done so much for me and my family.

So that's how he went to the golf course. And that's the first time I went when I was about three and a half. But I didn't really start playing the game till I was about eight. And then I started playing just golf with my dad and his fellow officer friends and, you know, I was a little kid who kind of tagged along. And then there was a junior tournament, a national junior tournament in the town where my grandparents lived, my mother's parents lived. So it was a good excuse for me to go visit my grandparents and go play golf.

And that's the first time I was about, I think I was 10, maybe 11, I was 11. That's the first time I actually saw other kids my age play golf. So I'd only played golf with these 30, 45-year-old guys, you know, who played golf as a past time. And I was like, hey, this is fun. I get to skip school and I get to play with kids my age. And I get to play these amazing golf courses to make no mistake.

Most of the average public courses here will make, will look like a guest I compared to the golf courses I grew up on. So that's kind of how I started. And then it was fun. It was fun to travel and go and play these courses and play with these kids. To give you an example of how big golf was, the first national level tournament I played in the

under 12 category, there was 16 kids. That's it. And I think I finished fifth of six. I was like, hey, this is not bad. Maybe I can do more of this. And that's how it's done. You did what everyone that when I asked for their background what they do is that you know they'll kind of talk about how they get into it and there's a huge gap from you know competing on the world stage and you know I played some junior tournament there so how do you get you know from playing in the junior tournament you know finishing fifth or sixth to being world class like that that I as many times as we scream it from rooftops, I don't think people can fully understand how big of a gap that is. So I'll fill that in. I was trying to keep it short, but this might take a little while.

So basically I'll pick up from there, and like I mentioned, since my dad was serving, we moved, you know, army bases, controlments every two to an hour, so eventually I found myself in a city called Hyderabad or Sikandrabad, which is where I spent about seven years between the age of 11, 11 and a half to about 17. That's where I started playing more and more and more. I started playing as many junior events as I can. I didn't really have a coach till I was 14 and a half, which is my coach now, Vijay. So I was literally learning from these,

you know, black and white photo copies of books that my dad found in the Army library. And, you know, names going back to like one of his favorites was Phil Galano. I don't even know who he is to be honest, but you're like, this guy's really good and look at these photographs. And I kind of learned like that.

And I just started playing more, and I love playing. And obviously I knew how to play. I could get the ball in the hole. I got it from point A to point B. As a kid, I am very flexible even today, and I was. So I had a lot of speed as a little kid. So I could hit it far, and that was fun. You wanted to be a guy who could hit it far.

Move, move forward from that. I missed out on qualifying for the national team when I was 14. And at that point of time, Indian Goals was at that point where they were trying to develop coaches. So they actually got this gentleman called Donato Di Ponsiano, who was this top Italian coach, who now I think is still a part of the Italian golf situation scene. He came into actually train coaches. So they had all the coaches, like 10, 15, 35 coaches who were trying to get better. They got this guy to come in and teach them and they needed guinea pigs. So they called us. They called all the kids and amateurs who missed out on making the national team. And they said, all right, you guys are in a 10-day camp where you're going to be taught by these guys, but he's being taught by that guy, so you're the guinea fakes, you know.

That's how I met my coach. I'll give you another little insight. I come from Bengal, which is the actual Bengal, not the Cincinnati Bengal football team, like the real Bengal. And the people from Bengal are known to be really everydied and smart and intelligent. My dad, the doctor, my mom, the professor, and as far as you can see, we're all super educated. So I was always expected to go down that road, but you know, my dad supported my goal. It was funny because I was at a 16 and I had

to make a decision whether I was going to take up, you know, higher education and going to science and trying to be a doctor and engineer or play golf, which would require me to do a little less, you know, education, so to speak. And they allowed me to do that. So at the age of 17, I moved to Bangalore, which is down south, which is where my coach was based. And I'm the only child. I don't have any siblings. I moved by myself like 30 miles outside the city in the middle of nowhere in a village, which was close to the golf resort that he worked at. And I got a place on my own and, you know, I would drive a little, you know, electric to-wheeler

scooter, put my golf bag on front and just drive to the golf club every day from, you know, six in the morning to six in the evening and work with him in practice. And that's when I got really good because I was studying. Like my coach says, I used to be a full-time student, part-time golfer, all the way to Lava 17, and then at 17 I became a full-time golfer, part-time student, different from how it works nowadays. Yeah.

And when I started doing that, my level of golf suddenly went just through the roof, because now I was able to like dedicate myself from morning to evening. So I still remember when I turned 18 my first year as an amateur, I think my scoring average as a junior, my last year was probably a 78 or 79. And that first year as an amateur, my scoring average was like 71.5. And then the second year as an amateur, I only played two years, my scoring average was in the 60s.

I won tournaments by 8 shots, 10 shots, 12 shots. And I was at that point where I looked at my coach, I said, look, I wanted to turn pro-off-fresh finish my college, which I did do in India, but I was like, I'm not going to get any better. If I keep playing at this level, I'm only going to go backwards. So I actually turned professional halfway through my third year of college. And in India, you can't turn through while you're in college. Here, you can't do that.

In India, you can. So I turned through at the ripe age of 20 while I was still in college. And I started playing on the Indian circuit, which is still there today. And then I took three months off to finish my graduation and got my degree in my pocket because even with that degree, I'm a black sheep in the family because I'm still considered illiterate and uneducated.

From there, it was all about getting to the Asian tour. And at every step that I took forward, I felt like, oh, you know, I'm really good. And I'd go play and I'd get lapsed. I had to get peed down. Like I should, I still remember my first year, I went to Asian Tour qualifying. It was a six round marathon back then. And I was one over after two days,

and I didn't make the two day cut because there were 145 people on the par. I'm like, holy shit, I thought I was good at this, but I got to go back to the drawing board. So, I kept getting reality checked along the way, and I always had to work super hard to improve my game. I had to work super hard to elevate my level. I wasn't one of those God gifted talents who just show up in truth 62, which is half the PGA tour. So, I had to really work my way up from there. And then, you know, once I got to the Asian tour, it was the same. It was a lot of miscuts.

It was a lot of, I need to get better. I need to be better at this, better at that. Then I really started, you know, working on my short game a lot more. So I could always hit it a mile as a kid. I was a good ball strike. I was never known to be a good parter or a good chipper. But I think the last three years, I played on the Asian tour, they used to have the yearly awards or whatever for ball striking and I think three years in a row, you know, I won the Greens and Regulations stats.

You know, that's what I was really good at. And it's funny because that's my biggest weakness now for the last four years. Well, that's what I'm trying to, you know, to split the tables around again. Well, that's just trying to split the table around again. Well, that's what's funny. You know, we're talking about your game. And, you know, we, a while ago,

a while back in the conversation, we're talking about transitioning the PGA tour. And I've always thought that, you know, the driver is such a prerequisite on the PGA tour. Yet, that's a strength of yours. And so, you know, it's not like your game shouldn't have translated. You know, I see a lot of corn fairy guys that come up that maybe don't drive it great

which you don't have to drive it perfect on the corn fairy tour to succeed yet you get up to PGA tour and those courses get to 75-76 with 25-yard wide fairways you got to drive it good and so that's it yeah that is interesting to me that you know that being such a skill of yours. But like I said you know I think the biggest thing that I lost was my hygiene. So I would just pick up these bad habits. It's not like I didn't pick them up before. I've always picked up bad habits, but I've had a really good, you know, system in place that would clean me up so to speak. That's something that I think I lost and I've had to work really hard to

kind of bring that back. And I think I'm closer now than I've been before. Well, what's it, you know, going even from India to the Asian tour, it sounds like the competition was an eye opener, if you will. What is, you know, I kind of tying that into just coming from a background where, you know, there's not a lot of professional golfers that come from India.

What kind of an influence that Arjun Atwal and Gief Milka Singh kind of have on your development one and what does competition teach you? What do you learn from competition? So the dynamics are obviously very different and every time I go back to India and I talk to some of the kids and there's a lot of talent, a lot of potential, a lot of really good players out there and I keep telling them I'm like you know even yesterday I think there was a tournament that finished in Calcutta and the kids shot 21 under to win.

These two go to shoot 21 under. I mean, that's not a joke, right? But you're hitting nine shots, 11 shots in a round on which I left in a seven. You know, you're probably gonna have at least two out of four, if not three out of four, five that are reachable. And I keep telling them, look, you guys have to start learning to make birdies with six ions. If you can't make birdies with six ions and five ions,

you cannot get to the next level. And I think that's one of the limitations of playing golf in a slightly underdeveloped golf nation or a immature sort of, you know, nation. I say, immature only in terms of age, only in terms of development. I think that was my big challenge. So when I started playing on the higher levels, that's the first thing I realized is like, if I want to be as good as these guys, I have to be better with my 7, 9, 5, 9, 6, and 4, than anyone else because everyone can visit good. But if you can't make birdie from 2 to 10 with a 5, you're not going to beat these guys. So that's the first thing I started learning and understanding and talking about G's and Arjun and there were a couple others, Jhoti and you know, I never really met them till much later in my career.

I remember I played with G back in 2008. That was the first time I met him, first time I played with him for two days. And he was on top of his game. You know, that was a year he got paired with Tiger in Augusta. And, you know, he was, he was top-fifing the world. And he could hit it, you know, with, with all his limitations and how he swung it. And everything that is so unique about G. It was a joy to, you know, joy to watch him play here at the ball

come off his club and I'm like that's what I want my golf ball to sound like. You know that's what happens when you play with guys who are really on top of their game, you get inspired. And obviously over time I've become really good friends with G's, very good friends with Arjun. In fact, again, fast forward to like three years later, I think it was 2014. And I was playing really well at that time on the Asian tour. And I think Arjun had just kind of lost his status on the Fijiator.

And Daniel Chopra is another person who I want to mention, even though he's technically sweeter, she's as much Indian as anyone else, grew up there, born and raised in Delhi. Daniel also came out and played a few events in Asia. And we used to play our Tuesday practice rounds together, like Arjun, Danny, myself, and another good common friend of us called Rahel, who's now playing in Japan, who actually,

by the way, is the one who coined my nickname, Paan. And the four of us, we'd go out and play Tuesdays. And I remember in Japan one year, we were playing the Panasonic Open in Japan. And I think that day, I think, a lander Lee took down the three of them in the four balls. And that night, Arjun and Daniel, like, what the hell are you doing here?

Like, why are you playing here? I'm like, what do you mean? You're good enough to beat guys out there. You're wasting your time here. And I just looked at them and I said, you must be joking. I'm like, what the hell are you talking about? The thought never even crossed my mind.

He's like, no, you're good enough. We've played there for 10 years. We know what we're talking about. You need to get your act together and you need to start focusing and thinking on getting out there. Because at that point of time, I was like, yeah, I click good up there, okay. And it never occurred to me that, oh, really? Good, I'll play with those guys.

Am I that good? I had no idea. So that Arjun and Danny, like they got in my ear and said, come on, you've got to get your, you know, get your stuff together and start, you know, aiming to get there. And that's when I, you know, realistically, start saying, all right, how am I going to get there? What's my way to get there? Okay let me first get my water rankings get on Europe and then you know within an eight-month period I won twice in Europe I was already

top 100 in the world because I was playing so consistently 13 and 12 13 14 and then I broke into the 50, came out here, had that amazing week at Bislinkstraight in 15. I needed to finish, I think I need to finish third by myself to keep my card and I bogeyed 18 and I finished in a tie for fourth at Bislinkstraight, the year, the day one and I was excited, happy, that was the best, still remains the best finish by an Indian in a major, but I was also like so disappointed that I bogeyed 18 and then get my card. So remember being on a phone call with a PJ or saying, Hey guys, can I get into Windom, which was the last event of the year.

And they said, Well, the rule book says, you're only allowed 12 events. And you know, that special temporary membership that everyone talks about now is thanks to me. Really? It's thanks to that event because I said, look, I just finished up 10. I just need to make another card. If I finish top 30, I get my card. It's like, well, we don't have a provision in the rule book

to allow you to play a 13th event. Following that event is when they added the special temporary membership, because I had more than a than I would have made more than Points for 150 years So the two rules that us come about thanks to Indians one is Arjun because he won the last tournament of the year Which was wind and championship and did not play the playoffs and the second rule was myself finishing fifth at well at Wistling straight and not being able to

peed up at wind him to try and get my card. So anyways I come back I come back three weeks later, play the contrary finals because I'd obviously done enough to get in that. I finished I think six then nine or six then elevens in the two of something like that and the two events that I played and I skipped the third event because it would have hurt my world ranking points to play a third event. And I've already done enough to keep my card. And I still remember when I played that Concertary Finals in 15, the whole news was,

oh, we've got a guy ranked 41st in the world playing Concertary Finals. But he can't play Windom. And I actually still remember it was, you know, Ricky, Pauler and Jimmy Walker were giving me shit because I was playing, I was playing Tiger's event that year in the Bahamas. And I was, they were talking to me about my schedule and I said, I'm playing at Gustav, I'm playing this, but I'm not into Phoenix,

man. I can't get in because I'm not ranked high. And I will be like, yeah, of course, you're not into Phoenix. You're playing a gust, but you can't get into Phoenix. You're in the contrary category. You're one of the most unique crossovers between world ranking and trying to get status, right? Maybe it was just a weird confluence of a... It was, I mean, it's all, weird confluence of a lot. It was.

I mean, it's all, it's all, you know, in good humor now. Yeah. Yeah, that's a, that's a wild story. One thing I wanted to make sure we talked about and we've, we've gone a lot of different directions here is playing, playing in the president's cup. You, you made the president's cup team in 2015 and 2017. What, what sticks out to you the most from those experiences?

We just want to win, man. Had a close one in 15. I don't know how well people remember that one. I know, and it kept me up for a number of nights because I had that vicious lip out for four feet that pretty much cost us the presence of Cup in hindsight. I still remember curking making a 24 and I flipped out my 4-5 and basically a few misses I make even the presence of the president. It was literally down to that. I think I was the second or third last group coming in on that Sunday. But it's the most special, the most unique event to be a part of without a doubt. I don't think I've made quite the same kind of bonds that I have in that one week that I did

with all the guys that I've played with. We had a presence cup dinner that Trevor organized a couple of weeks ago and once you get in that room and we all come together and sit down, it's just like one big family man. It's amazing. It's really special to be a part of and we just want to win. We want to get that cup back. It's not happened for a long time. There's a few people there who've been on the wrong side of it so many times. Myself included a couple of times. I was rooting so hard in Australia, it came down. It was really, really close. But the bottom line is the Americans are a tough bunch of guys to beat. They're super talented, they're super good at what they do.

We have the heart, we just determined. I just so badly want to be a part of that bunch again. Whenever that is, hopefully at Kweil Hollow and try and get that cup back, I think it'll be quite something. I hope it's somewhat neutral setup. I have a fear that Kweil Hall was there. No, I, you know, I, roll Melbourne and, you know, in Korea, you know, those were really good. And 2011 at Melbourne as well was just a very interesting competition, yet Liberty National set up so amazingly well for the Americans. I have a feeling Quill Hallo sets up sets up really well. Why you laugh, it's hard.

Well, I'm laughing because I know what's going to happen. That's why. And neutrality is quite funny. That's why I'm laughing. I realize I'm unrealistic that maybe, especially from your perspective, but from a viewership perspective, I don't think anyone really is rooting for a wide margin

of victory like there was in 2017. But I do got to ask you, you're responsible for one of my favorite president's cup moments on Saturday afternoon at Liberty National. It's getting close. The U.S. might win it on Saturday afternoon. Yet you make a putt and you gave one of the most emphatic tiger points I've ever seen, which I had a I know exactly why I know what you're going to be. I know why I know you're competing and you want to win your point as badly as possible. Do you see where I'm coming from? I'm thinking

at that moment, how basically I don't want to say funny that was, but very entertaining that was. Yeah, man. That was I think it was it's the most most intense I've probably ever been on a golf course. Way more intense than even this Monday. But I think the part that followed the part you're talking about, because the part you're talking about was on 16 to go one up with two holes to play with Charlie and Kevin Chappell.

And on 17, Charlie just jips in from absolutely nowhere. And you know, if you've been at Liberty and you look back from that green, which is not the 17th, I think it's the third hole when you played, you know, the normal road. They reratter. Yeah, and it's, you know, there's this big hollow before the green and there's a massive hill

from where you hit down. And I can see four cards up on the fairway. I can see the entire American team. I can see JT standing with a champagne bottle and three other guys and they're just like, everybody's like, oh no, Charlie just did that. This is it. We're going to close him out on a Saturday and it was Seavu's turn to part because he was further away. And I just looked at Seavu and I'm feeling this. I'm going to do this. And that's the most satisfied I've ever been in a life after making a part.

It's just watching their entire hill go, ah, maybe not. Was the most satisfying I've ever felt, because we'd been kicked in the nuts so many times that week. It was not even funny. And off to the American's band. They played so well and they literally made everything they looked at on that back. If you broke that presence cup into a back nine and a front nine event, we won the front nine.

We were like six or seven or eight up on the front nine and we were maybe 17 down or 21 down on the back. I mean, it was ridiculous how well they played. So that was one of the most satisfied I've ever been in my life just to make that part. And I definitely see where you're coming from on that. That's it. Especially I didn't know the story.

I was seeing them stay in there with the share of pain. I'm sure you're just. Oh, yeah. They were all up there. They're just waiting to start shaking that bottle and popping you know, like not today boys. Well, the last day too got a little more interesting than I think they had planned for. I don't know if there was a little too much party in Saturday.

We do okay in the singles, but we've got to take them to the singles. Yeah, I with you. So all right, man, well, we'll let you go. I really appreciate you sharing your story and debriefing on a very memorable week. And this was one of the more fun ones in recent memories was great. Great to finally have you on and wishing you best of luck and turning this great finish of the players into a great rest of 2022. Thanks, Oli. Appreciate your time.

Cheers. Be the right club. Be the right club today. That is better than most. How about in? That is better than most. Better than most. Expect anything different.

Jeffrey!