No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - NLU Podcast, Episode 63: Rory McIlroy

Episode Date: February 1, 2017

Rory’s back, and he’s ready to dish on his time off, how much golf he watches while he’s away, his fitness routines, and a lot more. We also talk about how the game of golf... The post NLU Podcast, Episode 63: Rory McIlroy appeared first on No Laying Up. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey guys welcome back to the No-Langout podcast. We will get to the interview very shortly with Rory McElroy. Real quick, wanted to make a quick announcement. We are giving away a Callaway Epic Driver. For free, right here on this podcast, all you have to do, this couldn't be easier. Just subscribe to this podcast. Go into iTunes, leave a review, five star review, whatever you want to leave, leave a funny comment with it, Whatever it can be any kind of essay, it can be as short or as long as you want. Leave a funny review in iTunes for us. Independent third party is going to go through all of these and choose the funniest response, funniest review, and we are going to send you a Callaway Epic Driver for that.

Again, totally free. Take two seconds of your time, go in and review it in iTunes and to yourself in to win this epic driver. For now, let's get to the interview with Roy McElroy. On the tee from Northern Ireland, Roy McElroy. That's better than most. That is better than most. That is better than most. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the No-Lang Up podcast. I'm Chris Solomon, joined for the second time, four time major champion, number two player in the world.

And maybe the most bored guy I know at the moment, Rory McOroy. How bad is it, man? It's so bad that I actually asked you to come back on the podcast, so that's my bored. Yeah, it's good. I didn't ask you this more enough whether it was too soon to come back on, but thankfully, thankfully you give me another shot. So, here I am. Yeah, really inconvenient for me. It was real tough to move my schedule around to make this happen, but you know, that's what we do for our guests. So you've been holed up with injury for a while, imagine how far along are you in the wedding planning,

how much of your time is that taking up at the moment? Yeah, that's that's basically, you know, I'm not really much good for anything else right now So at least I can lend a bit of time to that But yeah, no, it's going well. We're back in back in Northern Ireland for the next couple of days and getting a few things sorted but Yeah, it's it's sort of I was just saying to you there, it's annoying because I feel like I can do everything else that I want, like I can perform every day activities and I feel comfortable, I can take your deep breath again, I can sleep well but I'm uncomfortable swinging a golf club so obviously that's what I want to do.

So yeah, it's a little bit frustrating at the minute, but I know just with a little bit of rest, hopefully I'll be back in balls in a couple of weeks. And that gives me at least one to time to get ready for trying to get back from Mexico, but ultimately, obviously trying to get ready for the start of the April and be ready for Augusta. Yeah, so that was a nice question. Sounds like Mexico is still the goal. Now, hearing you talk about it now, does it... I didn't get the sense when I was watching you in South Africa that it was bothering you that much, that you really had that much trouble swinging the club. So, is it worse? Is what happened in South Africa that it would make it worse at all, or do you feel worse about the current state of it right now than you did when you left Africa?

No, I mean it feels much better than when I left Africa for sure. Obviously I had a lot of physio treatment on it. They give me a few anti-inflammatories and painkillers. Obviously, you can get through, I think think the worst thing that happened is I felt it Go I mean, it was it was sort of building up for a while I'm sort of had tightness in the this sort of upper left side of my back and And then on the Friday the tournament as I was hitting balls going, you know getting ready to go into play

Obviously felt this twinge and you know I was thinking about pulling right there and then because obviously it you know it felt pretty bad and I mean it wasn't you know I could still swing a golf club but the worst thing was it was pretty hot point there and you know you're walking in you're right there for five hours or whatever and like I couldn't take a deep breath and then I felt these short shallow breaths so it was like I was getting lightheaded and I felt like I was going to hyperventilate. So that was really the big problem on Friday. But then I think what happened, obviously I've got the stress fracture. And then I've played on with it for three more days. And I'm getting treated down there with the physios not really knowing what it is.

They feel like it's a muscle spasm in the back. They don't, you know, and obviously, you know, no one can see because, you know, I didn't get a scound on there, I only got a scam when I go back to Dubai, so, you know, I'm, you know, whether I did more damage to it for playing through it, um, probably, but I mean, I wasn't to know at the time, and, you know, I would have felt pretty bad pulling out whenever, you know, I'm done inside that for good and I'm doing an earlier fever and you know it was pretty apparent that you know a lot of the people that came to the golf were you know were dying to see me and you know I played through and I was fine and but I didn't really know the extent of of what it happened until obviously we got

to do by and did discount. The crowd down there was pretty crazy wasn't it? I mean, well, first of all, they've never heard of the phone rules at all. No, that's fine. I mean, it's, you know, it's, it's, like, you go, that's, that's nothing compared to going to plan China or Korea. Yeah. I know. It's like, it's nothing.

It's fine. And if everyone's doing it, I don't mind. And I think, you know, if, you know, I think it's, I really think they have adopted it on the PJ tour, but if people have their cameras out and as long as they're on silent, that's totally fine. Like I have no problem without whatsoever. You know, it's at the end of the day,

we're right there to try and win and try to play well, but we're entertaining crowds as well. I mean, they pay money to come see us. And, you know, the least that they can have is a picture or something like a souvenir from from their day out or changing some of the best players in the world play. So I have no problem with that if everyone's doing it and even even if there is a few flashes going off or whatever if it's a constant noise it's okay it's just that just that one that one noise that puts you off. That's the thing that is tough.

But yeah, I do a problem with phones on courses or our cameras or whatever. It's like, I mean, if that's what puts you, I mean, I get it if it's just a very sudden noise, but you should be in the zone or concentrating enough that it doesn't bother you that much What about a shirtless guy running across the fairway on the 18th hole? I saw it. So I like I watched that back. I saw that clip on Twitter And I had no clue that that happened like I didn't see him. It was right in front of you I don't know. I'm I I was sitting there watching I was like, how did I not see this guy? That's like, ridiculous. Nobody noticed it.

That was the best part. Yeah, I know it was like, it's Africa. I want to talk a lot about one. When you're off like you are now, how much golf do you watch? Even for injury time off, I know you haven't had a lot of injury time off in your career. But injury and just what in your off-wakes, do you watch a lot of golf?

This is really bad. This is how much I try to tell people I'm not a fan. I don't watch that much golf but like the other night I think I was in Dubai and Tiger and DJ and GSM were tuning off. I don't know what time it was. It was maybe 2 o'clock in the morning, Dubai time, and I went to bed, and I woke up and it was like, I might have to go to the bathroom or whatever, and I sort of saw the time, it was like 2.30 and I was like, maybe I'll stay up and watch a few holes.

So I actually, I actually stayed up and watched most of it through the night. So I watched a good bit. I mean, I, like it was, it was Tigers first, first week back in a while and I was sort of intrigued to see how it was just like everyone else. So, yeah, I got off in the middle of the night to watch that. So, I guess I'll have a bit of a call for him. That's a good thing. You don't have to be embarrassed by that. Yeah, I don't know. I think it's the cool answer to be like, no, I don't watch that much call for whatever. But yeah, I mean, when I'm off and I want to be there, I watch a good bit of it.

And as well, I knew that DJ had a good week. He'd go above me in the world ranking. You know, some sort of keeping an eye on him. Those guys hopefully they're not pulling away from me too much. But apart from Tiger Miss and the cut last week, all in all it was a decent week. Both of those guys didn't do too well. So I didn't fall behind too much. And you may have yourself maybe some open competition there

for a new Ryder writer cup teammate as well. Assuming you're going to be in John Romsey or about taking up European tour membership. But I would think with the new changes the European tour format or the changes up from five to four. And especially not, he's got his card and he's got like playing privileges and he's gonna be. I mean, and his name did come up quite a few times in meetings over the past sort of six months. We're like, you know what, we need to make it attractive enough that John Ram wants to come over and be a member of the term, be on the right or cop team Lai, he's like, he's got no excuse. I mean, he's just one on the PJ tour.

I mean, he's the, you know, and everyone knew he was such a great player, but I don't think anyone knew. I mean, I thought down the stretch last week, he was awesome. So, you know, hopefully he continues to play that way and he'd be a huge asset for us in front. I know you're paying attention to this

because we exchange a few messages on it, but what did you think of how JT started off the season? Oh, it was unbelievable. It was cool to watch. I mean, obviously I've played a lot with JT, and I've seen glimpses of it either whether it be at home at the Barrett's or or on tour and Yeah, it was it was impressive. I mean to follow it up. I mean obviously high-grady played

a Capole and then following it up and going and shooting 59 next week and winning so nearby however many shots it was It was it was really impressive and obviously so happy for him as well. I mean he's such a good guy. So yeah it's been a great start to the season. I mean there's some really young guys that have done well. You've got Hideki obviously played grit before the little brick that we had and then JT's come out and play grit and then John Raum and it's

shipping up to me a really good year. Did you you were also tweaking a little bit this week about watching the Australian Open Tennis? I'm here to give you all my expert opinion on that final match. But do you have a relationship with Roger Federer at all? Did you talk to him at all since he won the open? relationship with Roger Federer at all? Did you talk to him at all since he won the open? No, I have if anything, I've probably a little more relationship with Rafa than I do at Roger But I mean I know both guys from Hanging around tennis turf or a bit and whatever and it was like again like Sunday couldn't have got much better for me as a sports fan because Carl Frampton, World

Champion boxer from here in Northern Ireland, he fought like 8-30 in the morning, due by time, and then that fight went 12 runs and went to distance, and then I actually went like for a walk, that's the other thing about being injured, I can't really do much, but I don't want to get fat, so I need to go and move and do stuff and try not to eat as much and whatever so it went like for a walk just to try and burn a few calories and then got back and watch this really an open final, it was like the perfect Sunday. So speaking of like the perfect Sunday and talking about watching golf, if you were to build, I wanted to ask you a few questions about in general by how the way you think golf is covered. And I want to know, if you're watching, if you're

like a golf fan, what's your dream broadcast team from like on course commentary, like in the booth, like if you're building and Wynn Riley, who does the European zircoverage on Sky Sports. Both really funny guys, both really good guys, I think that would be great. In the booth, I really like Faldu. I think Faldu's are really good golf analysts. He speaks a lot of sense. And he's been there and done it.

I think that's a huge thing as well, but some of these guys, I mean, like, like, someone, you know, like, someone like Johnny Miller, who some people can say can be over critical at times. I don't like, I see that in a way but at the same time like Johnny's been there and Donna and Johnny probably played some of the best golf ever and stretches of his career so I mean he he remembers how easy it was at those times I don't think he remembers how hard it can be sometimes but I

don't mind taking a little bit of criticism from him because he's been there and done it. So, I think Johnny would be in there too. Jim Nance just caused the voice, I guess. Who else would be there? I think Daudi Pepper is really good. I think she, I think again she gets it, she knows it't really well obviously and she was a great player in her own right, but I think she calls it shot truly well. She calls like, this is a bad lie, this is a good lie. This shot will be difficult, this should be easy, whatever it may be. So yeah, there's a lot of good ones out there. I mean, there's a few, there's a few bad ones that I won't mention, but I think the majority of them are pretty good. You're not gonna bring Brandon into the booth? Or for the postman commentary?

Honestly, the thing is, I agree with a lot of stuff that he says. I really do. I think he's very knowledgeable on the golf swing and I think he does talk a lot of scent. But sometimes, you know, if I see someone that makes a comment about something that they're maybe not quite as up on and some other things, I like to just, you know, because you have a platform that you can reach a lot of people and sometimes if what you're telling them is a little bit misguided or not quite correct. I mean, that can, you know, you don't know where that information can flow to. So sometimes I just try to, not write wrongs, but at least give a factual side of the story. I mean because there's so much subjective stuff like that. I just like to be a little bit objective at times and try to, yeah, I guess try to set the story straight I guess.

Yeah. I know he's given you some grief in the past about your fitness regiment. I know you've covered your fitness regimen in a lot of places, but I don't think I ever asked you, how would you compare? So tying this back to your injury, some people want to point immediately towards working out and causing injury. I heard you talk to Bacon just a bit about how you know you train professionals. They're looking after every step you take and I was curious if you had any insight as to how your training regiment or your philosophy differs at all from somebody like Tiger who kind of revolutionized the fitness game. I don't know if you guys ever really worked out together, but how is it similar? How is it different kind what your guys' goals are in the gym? Yeah, I think everyone's fundamental goals as a golfer are to stay injury-free. I think that's a big thing. And that's the reason that for me anyway, that's the reason that I got into it. Because I've struggled with a bad back for a long time.

I remember when I was 17 years old, and how much your tournaments really struggling with my back and thinking about pulling out of events, and I didn't know what a gym was back then. So I've had back problems because I've swung a golf club since I was two years of age. And swinging a golf club is one of the worst things you can do for your back. No matter how you swing it, I mean people can say if you don't restrict your hip

rotation on the way back and everything, but it's still, you're putting a lot of stress and a lot of torque on your spine. Especially when you're trying to get it out there and you're hitting it hard and obviously trying to get maximum distance out of it too. So that's my big thing is, if I can protect my back by being stronger and making it more robust, then we call them shock absorbers. If you can put shock absorbers on your body to protect your joints, to protect your bones, obviously I don't have enough shock, it was over this because I'm out with a bone injury, but you know what I mean? If you can be strong

in the right areas and stabilize the right parts of your body, it can only help and it can only lead to longevity as well. And I sort of, I think I lived to this in Shins podcast last week, but you know, it might be time because of high athletic golf is not on how much more of a par sport it is and you're gonna see guys maybe not play into their 50s and maybe that's okay maybe maybe having a 20 year career instead of a 30 year career in golf is okay you know it's it's still a long career and you can still got to you can still achieve a lot of goals and you can still you can still do a lot of things in the game if you have that window. So you know it seems like it is going to go that way just because of you know coaching methods and

because people have figured out okay this is the you know the maybe the most efficient way to swing a golf club is the maybe the most efficient way to swing a golf club, and maybe if the most efficient way to swing a golf club means you're going to pick up a few injuries or a few niggles along the way. It might not be a bad price to pay, but at the same time the work that you do in the gym should hopefully negate those effects that your swing may have in your body. Yeah, do you think also there is a certain level, I'm not sure the best way to ask it, but being in good shape and having strong fitness, strong muscles also just adds to a level of comfort in your own skin and kind of confidence, do you think there is an element of that that goes into something that translates onto the course as well, just feeling confident,

you know, standing on two feet and feeling muscular. Is there something to that? I don't think it's about feeling muscular. I think it's about having, I mean, a lot of the stuff that I focus on posture. I think having good posture makes you feel better, it makes you feel taller, it makes you feel stronger. Anyway, if your shoulders are back, and you're in the right posture, and you're, that's all of a sudden, that's a more positive way to carry yourself. So it might even be a bit more muscular,

it might just be, because we don't need to intimidate anyone on a golf course. You know, we're not trying to sort of hit them or whatever. But I think yeah, posture is a big thing. And I think talking to a lot of guys, and obviously golf is so hard on your posterior chin and your back. And if you can really concentrate on that, and make that as strong as possible and as robust as possible.

And yeah, of course, being strong in the right areas is great and it helps somewhat for golf. But yeah, of course, I mean, since going in the gym and, you know, sort of not transforming my body, but sort of, you know, it's a different look. Of course, I feel that better about myself. There is a bit of a confidence thing there, but I'm not sure that that's helped my game, but I think getting strong in the right areas

and making my swing more efficient and hopefully being last prone to injury. You know, that's what's the big help to your game. Yeah, I've never really understood the criticism that has come with somebody getting in shape. I said only golf would ever criticize its own athletes for being in better physical shape. Along that same line, what do you, I just curious as to what you think about the current state of the way golf is covered? And if you were in charge of that, what would you do differently about the way golf is covered and do you think it's kind of a sport that lags behind the way it's covered some compared to other major sports? I mean, I think golf has taken huge strides over the past couple of years in terms of social media activity. For example, I've repeatedly said that all of you guys and the guys

that I want to give time to the likes of yourself and the people that I've mentioned over the past few weeks, you guys have made golf fun to follow again because it's a different take on it. It's more aimed at millennials, it's fun. It's, you know, it's, yeah, it's the way it should be and it's the social media age and this is what people appreciate. And you got to look at something like, like, European, like, I think what the European Tour have been doing in terms of social has been unbelievable with, obviously obviously the little interviews with Billy or you know the mannequin challenge thing that they did or even that awkward reporter that they did not be. I mean it's like I mean that stuff is gold like that is awesome and

people talk about growing the game. I mean this is one of the best ways to grow the game is to put stuff like that out there. And you know, back it's more people into it. It makes people see that golf isn't this uptight sport that's only for rich, fat, white guys. It's for everyone. And everyone can come and play it, and it's open to everyone, and it's way better. So I think golf has taken some great strides over the past few years and

Hopefully it continues in this being for a long time. Well, I got a I got a similar idea I'll we're gonna run by you and we're done here for the memorial this year So remind me on that but we we we got we can have some good good fun with the the PGA tour folks as well, but I just I'm asking that question as well and in line with the same one. Like how does it feel knowing that, you know, people are right for blogs or websites are sitting there,

like listening to this right now, waiting to, and everything you say, like in a press conference, they're sitting there and they're waiting to turn it into a blog post anytime you say, because anytime you say something interesting, it's news. like somebody like Jack Nicholas never really had to deal with that.

Bobby Jones, Tiger, I think, kind of transformed that a little bit, but I know you're pretty open with the media and you're not that careful with what you say, but there's gotta be times where you've been burned and it's gotta still be something on your mind, is that accurate to say? Yeah, of course, I mean, I think that's very accurate. There's things that you wanna avoid talking about something on your mind, is that accurate to say? Yeah, of course. I mean, I think that's very accurate.

There's things that you want to avoid talking about, and there's things that are just like, you know, you would rather not go there, or yeah, I've been burned a few times. I mean, some off the cuff comment that I think is harmless can be spun in such a way that you really didn't mean for it to be that way or you know people can take what they want from it and of course you need to be careful about what you say but also

about how you say things. But yeah, look, I'm not, I don't want to be guarded, I don't want to be as open as possible and I think people appreciate that, I think people, you know, they, I think one of the, one of the great things about social media is, you know, fans and people that follow you can get to know you a little bit better and you can, you know, you can be your, you can be yourself, you can, you can let them into a little bit of your life and that's okay. So it's not just okay, it's great. It's great to be able to connect with these people that support you and follow you. So, of course, you need to be careful by what you say every night again, but as I said, I feel people appreciate the openness and the honesty of guys that speak their mind

and try to keep it real. I guess that's the thing and that's what I try to do. Yeah, I thought about. I think I asked that question first because the next one I think could get construed in the wrong way. I'm asking this in a lighthearted way because I've lived in Europe for a few years now. Obviously I grew up in the States and I love asking Europeans like what they find absurd or funny about Americans. It's a little different from you. Your European lives in the US and the US has been a big part of your life and culture for a long time, but not growing up in the States. I'm just curious, what do you find baffling or just kind of amusing about Americans in

general? Oh. They're fascination with guns. Okay. That's a big thing. Um, not one to get too political. Um, I guess for me, like I, I, I, it always baffles me because I think, like I, you know, in Europe or, especially where, where I'm from, like, I wouldn't know the first place to go to try and, where I'm from. I wouldn't know the first place to go to try and have buy a gum or get a gum or whatever like that where you can literally walk into a Walmart in the States and if you're of a legal age and you can get a license you can buy. Like I remember seeing a gun for the first time in the States and I was like oh my god that's you, you're sort of scary. But like, I guess it's a, it's a right that, that citizens have and I respect that and whatever.

But I've always find that a little unnerving just because of, that taboo or on guns where I'm from, because of where I'm from and the troubles and everything. It's just, it's a little bit different. But going more lighthearted, I guess. That's what I was going to go light-hearted. Like, people always tell me that we're really loud, but you were straight for guns, man. I didn't see that kind of thing. Yeah, well, I don't know. Let's see, let's see, light-hearted. I've played and traveled

to the US since I was a kid, and I've always really enjoyed it. I've always and traveled to the US since I was a kid. And I've always really enjoyed it. I've always enjoyed it. I think the one thing that I like about it, I don't know if it's because of my Irish and a sort of whatever, but people are always super friendly, like really friendly. And it's because I always feel like anytime you meet an

American, they say, oh, I'm half Irish, a quarter Irish or whatever. And so there's always some sort of instant connection there but I mean like America is where I've sort of made my home now and I'm gonna have an American wife very soon and I don't really want to say too much bad stuff. I didn't even say bad stuff. I didn't even say you had to go for bad stuff. That's where your mind went.

But how are you and Eric are going to decide what your, either what writer cup or soul Oh geez. I guess they'll be, they'll be drill citizens one day. You thought you were going to get away from your great Britain, Ireland, having to make a decision? I don't know, I don't know, yeah. Now you have to decide between continents. Yeah, that's a tough one. They got a follow. I mean, Erica did a pretty good job supporting Europeans this year or last year. So I think we're going to have to stay with Europe on

that one. Yeah, that was, that was your say for answer there too. I want to know, you, you seem to me like to be a very easy guy to get to know, which kind of surprises me for a guy of your, of your level of fame. So I want to know, how big is your circle, like your circle of friends? How big is the group of people that you stay really close with, that you hang out with in Florida, in Ireland, because I don't really hear a lot about like your your big group, or I think you kind of keep that close to the chest, but how big is that group? But you keep a pretty tight knit group. You keep a pretty tight knit group. I do. I have a handful of very close friends that I've known my whole life basically. And then I have obviously a half guys that I

know from tour and guys that I've played golf with growing up and whatever, but um... yeah, it is, it's pretty, it's, like, it's hard to me. When you get in a position like this, um... I know the people that have known me since I was a kid and just knew me as, as who I am and not the guy that, um, is this good golfer and has one golf tournament and all that sort of stuff so Yeah, there's people from back home who I would be missed as very close friends my best friends and then I've got acquaintances I guess but more than that more than acquaintances. I mean friends, you know friends that I like to hang out with And friends that I really enjoy spending time with but with her friends that I really enjoy spending time with but mostly, you know, the guys that I grew up at home with, they're the really close ones and the ones that, if I would ever

be in trouble or if I ever needed anything, the first ones I call. I guess have you ever been burned by any people close to you at some point in your life, letting you down or simply clearly just wanting something from you that was inappropriate anyway. Um, yes, of course. I mean, like, I went through a legal battle with a former manager at one point, so like, I know all about being burned and about feeling like you've been taking advantage of, I guess. But in terms of friendships, not really. I mean, I'm a pretty trusting person.

I'm a pretty open person. But again, I think the people that I have around me are lifelong friends and don't really want anything else from me but just continue that friendship I guess. Yeah, it's hard. You go through life and you do automatically have this extra layer or this, you put your guard up a little more often because you're a little skeptical and you don't know whether someone's being friendly just because they're being friendly

and something or, you know, but it's the way of the world, I guess, and with some of my position, you just always just have to be a little bit skeptical at times. But I think I'm a pretty good judge of who the good guys are and who the bad guys are. And I feel like I can make a pretty good judgment on people pretty quickly. When you're in talent for a tournament week, what does it look like socially for you? I mean, I imagine every stop you go, there's somebody that you know in some connection that wants to have a meal. Do you mostly keep to yourself doing a tournament week or do you limit yourself to one or two nights out for an easy dinner or what does it typically look like? Yeah, I mean I'd much rather go out for dinner at tournament weeks than staying in the hotel

room or have room service unless we're running a house and we'll stay in and cook or whatever. But yeah, I mean typical week is usually, yeah, as you said, I mean, you know, I'm at the point now, this is... I've been on tour a decade, so I've gotten to know people pretty much at every tour stop that I go to. Yeah, of course, there's people that want to have dinner and want to take you out and whatever. And that's really nice, but yeah, you try to limit it to maybe one or two nights a week and just try to do something quiet whether it's with the team like if my family are there or Eric is there or whoever like I'd you know I'd go out for dinner with them most of the time but then there's there's other points where you'll catch up with some of the guys some of the

guys on tour whether it be Ricky or JT or Whoever you'll go out and you'll have a bit of dinner with those guys as well, but For the most part it's it's pretty much You know, it's it's sort of got to the point where everyone has their little team around them whether the coach Cati Physio Manager here ever so I think most guys and I just sort of stick to that. That was actually my next question. I feel like you you seem to be pretty involved kind of in handling your own affairs. For instance, if I want a player on the podcast,

I typically have to go through their agent or manager in some way to get it arranged. But do you keep, how big is your team in general and do you, is that something that you kind of like to, you keep it small on purpose and keep, I guess, kind of the executive decisions and the small day-to-day stuff? Do you like to keep that really close to you or is that, like, very well handled by your management office? What's your overall strategy or thought process in that regard? Yeah.

I sort of look, I'm in a very fortunate position where I sort of do the things that I want to do, especially this sort of stuff. I mean, if I think I directly employ 10, 11 people, legal counsel, brand agencies. Oh, there's so much stuff that goes into it. Like, I would never have dreamed that I would have all these people around me whenever I was starting off my career. I didn't have a clue about all this sort of stuff. But, yeah, I mean, indirectly, there's probably around 30 people that work for me, which is not to think about it.

I guess it's just the way it is. Does that stuff at this point kind of run itself, though, or are you heavily involved in the day-to-day with a lot of those people? So we have quarterly board meetings. So for board meetings a year that basically I just get an update on what's going on. So I'm not that involved, but obviously I need to be involved in some of the decisions and stuff that's going on obviously. But yeah, they try to whittle the dime for me so, they give me a brief summary of everything that's going on and I find it to make a few decisions here and there I do, but, you know, I try to stay out of it for the most part.

After you, let's say you win a tournament. What do you do next? Like, I imagine your media requests shoot through the roof that following week, but do you ever like change plans and just say, hey, let's go to this island this week? Or do you ever, do you really reward yourself after a win or what's your normal your north? I guess we get at this point with as many times as you'd want, we can say there's a normal routine after it, but. Yeah, normal routine.

You know, I took a bit of advice from Patrick Harrington back in the day and he said, really see every your wins because as a golfer, we lose much more than we win, which is very true. You know, we get the opportunity to win a few times a year and hopefully you take a few of those. But you know, winning three or four times a year is a pretty big success in golf. You know, not many people enjoy that sort of success. So you have to enjoy your win.

I mean, what's all the hard work for and everything if you can enjoy it when you actually do it. So, yeah, I mean, of course, I wouldn't say I have a sat routine, but I mean, it would usually involve a few beers or a few bottles of wine or a few something just to you know we try to be disciplined throughout the year to get ourselves in a position where we can win big tournaments and achieve big goals. Like even after the FedEx couple last year and winning the tour championship, I mean like I had a massive hangover

that Monday. But we had a day off, so that was fine. But I mean, usually not the best way to start a writer cup week. But you have to enjoy your successes. And thankfully by Friday, I was feeling okay and was able to play pretty well. But yeah, Teezy, you got to do these things. I mean, you got to enjoy the success. I mean, if you don't enjoy it, then what's the point in doing it? Yeah, I was going to do these things. I mean, you kind of enjoy the success I mean if you don't enjoy it and what's the point in doing it. Yeah, I was gonna judge you if the answer was anything other than that So that's good. Yeah, exactly. Are you going you you missed out on the last year famously? Are you going to spring break 2k 2017? I am not going to spring break 2k 17. No, I think you have other priorities that month I've I've I've a few things going on in April I

Figured that was the answer but wasn't sure if it yeah, it looks like you're missing out two years in a row Yeah, yeah, are you? Going going back a bit from your junior days Were there any tournament specifically that like alluded you or guys growing up? They just had your number that's still I kind of stick with you that you still remember? Yep, yeah, there was a guy who like for like I might have beaten him once or twice but there was a guy from Arizona called Philip Francis. He actually went to UCLA and played college golf. I'm not sure what he's doing though But like I just could not beat this kid

He won everything that we played in whether it be junior world or Whatever else So Philip Francis he was like he was the stug of our age division back in the day and he Yeah, he was he was really good and he was really good guys. Well, actually, it was Phillip Francis, Scott Pinkney, who played on tour last year. Tony Fino, myself. There was a few of us. And yeah, so Phillip Francis was the one I felt like I could never beat him. I might have gotten a better one a couple of times, but that was it.

And then I never made a pass the first drawing to the British amateur either. That was one of the big things. I remember playing Lidem in O7, qualified pretty easily. The 36-hole stroke play and going into the match play last 64, I draw a guy called Daniel Willett in the first drawing. I'd never heard of the guy before. I was like, Daniel Willett, never heard of him, he should be easy. Danny was six under through seven. I think I was like four or five times. I actually ended up making a bit of a comeback, but he beat me two and one. I was

like, this guy's actually pretty good. and then he ended up playing on the Walker Cup team. Yeah so we played the Walker Cup together that year and then obviously Dany's went on to do what he's done, Master's Champion and everything so you know he was another one that yeah I think I just planned well all that week as well if I had it just got passed down he might have made a bit of a run but yeah there you go. Your memory of the specific memory, like being 6' down or 6' under through 7' and throw it. I've heard your interviews before where you can reference like, yeah, 2007 I hit 7' iron

from 186. Like you can tell how much some of this stuff sticks with you. I wasn't, I thought you were going to say the Irish amateur based on what a conversation you and I had a few months ago. I go, well, yeah, Irish amateur as well. That was the only one that I didn't win. I mean, there's, again, it's like, you know, even though, you know, I've went on since then and I've achieved quite a lot and I've done whatever I've done. Like, these things still sting a little bit and it's they shouldn't because I mean What does it matter now? I but at the CM time it's like oh, you know, it's just that little tinger

Grab that you didn't that you didn't win it or you didn't get the better of whatever guy it was but uh yeah Portmarnock 2006 Yeah, Irish to a play. Yeah, that was that was tough. That was one of those ones where, you know, it came down to, it was a playoff. And even before that, like even the back mind was a bit of a bottle and I just kept hitting fairways and kept hitting greens and wasn't holding anything and this finished left hander, Auntie Ahakis. Um, basically hitting it all over the place but getting up and down from everywhere. And then he did the exact same thing.

Like I hit Farrowais and Greens in the playoff the first two holes, but didn't make a birdie. He up and downed at both times, and then we both headed on to the next screen. Like a 30-footer and miss, and then he yelled from like 20 feet to wind. So anyways, it's fine. It's fine. I'm not too better about it but 10 and a half years ago you could you could list the whole by whole I know exactly

but it is like it's it shouldn't it's funny like it shouldn't bug you but I think just being a competitor and being proud of my record and and and all that stuff it still still gets me a little bit. My reason for asking that or a transition there is, it seems you won four majors obviously, other than the 2010 PGA, I don't feel like, I'm discounting the 2011 Masters, I guess it's a different category, but I don't feel like you've had any really major close calls

in a major, you won four without having that real heartbreak of being super, super close. Do you attribute that to anything? Not even Tiger had a ton of third place finishes and a few runner ups, not nearly as many as Nicholas did, but do you equate that to anything in particular? Yeah, I don't know. I definitely feel like I've turned into a decent closer. I think early on in my career that would have been a bit of a criticism.

I used to get myself in decent positions, especially runs and then I throw a 73 or a 74 out of that and finish wherever. But it took me a while to learn how to close tournaments like. Probably took me a little bit longer than some guys, but luckily I've been on tour since I was 18 so I had a bit of time to learn. But yeah, I don't know. I finished third in the page yet. He was a little 10 and a 9. Finished third in Andres in 10. Finished one shot out of the playoff at Whistling Strait in 10. And then obviously I had that, obviously, had that bad afternoon in Augusta in 11.

And I think that's really what changed things. I almost like you need to go through something like that or at least I did to really learn from it and I did. I really did. I learned a lot from that and not you know people say they learn from their successes and they learn but I really learned from that because like I just I knew what not to do. Like I remember my thought process, my remember everything that happened that day. So at least I knew going forward,

okay, I don't really want to do that again. So, you know, and then I was able to win the US Open and everything just sort of kicked on from there. But, you know, I think, yeah, the catalyst for becoming at decent closure was, was up a lot happened to the August of that afternoon Do you did the way people kind of frame tigers career? And I think he kind of he made the he cut it out for them and putting his goals so high But obviously he did things at the at the highest level that people have never done before but it certainly appears as if he's gonna

Come up short of 18 majors and almost from the that you know look people look at his career as at this point as of what could have been. Did that the way that people kind of viewed that affect the way you kind of set your own goals? You've always been you know you've said it in the past you want to become you know the best European player of all time you want to win the career grand slam, but you never gave yourself this too high of a measure to measure yourself against and for the people to point at and say you didn't make it. Did what happened with Tiger influence that at all? I think so a little bit.

I've always been one to set lofty goals, and yeah, like I've openly said, of course I want to try to become the best European ever. But I think they're very realistic goals. They're goals that are achievable. But again, at the same time, say that doesn't happen, I'm still not going to view my career as a failure. I mean, I still feel like I achieved, if it was all the goal away tomorrow, I still feel like I've achieved a lot in the game. And I've set out for the most part what I wanted to do.

I mean, when I was nine years old, I said I wanted to be the best golfer in the world and win all the majors. Well, I pretty much done a lot apart from one thing. And it's the same thing with Tiger. It's like he set out to 19 majors or surpass Jack or whatever. But he's won 14 majors. He's won 80 times on the PJ Tour. He's won over 100 times worldwide.

That is not a failure. But unfortunately, people are going to see his career as a failure because he didn't achieve what he set out to achieve. And that's litokris. Like, absolutely litokris. He played the best golf of anyone in the world ever for like a 10-year stretch. But, you know, it was golf that no one had seen before. You know, and it was just, it brought so many people to the sport and it ignited a generation of golfers that you see now coming through the likes likes of Justin Thomas, Hadek Yimatsuya,

and with Jordan Speak, John Ram, myself, oh, just so many guys that were just inspired by what he did on the golf course. So he transcended the game of golf and he is nothing but a success and a credit to the game of golf. And I would love if he would just give it one last run. If he was just a lot of the opportunity to be healthy for a few years and just give it one last

run because I'd love to compete against them, don't want to stretch from me a year, and I'm sure a lot of these guys would, but just for golf, just for the fans, just one more time, it would be awesome. As listening to Alan Shipnux podcast with Phil, just for the fans, just one more time. It would be awesome. As listening to Alan Shipnuck's podcast with Phil, and obviously everyone asks, ask players, do you think Tiger will win again? And I usually don't find the answers very interesting, but I thought the way Phil answered it was very convincing to me and that nobody knows Tiger as a competitor

better than Phil does. And Alan asked him and Phil said, I asked him, do you think he's gonna win again? Phil said, oh yeah. Like his instinct was just like, oh yeah, like there was no doubt, and he was just convincing his voice. Do you feel the exact same way? I hope he does.

I think he's swinging in the club much better than people given, like, you know, I saw some reactions to the stuff last week. Like, if you look at his back swing, I mean, where he's taking the club away, where he's putting the club at the top of the swing, it's really good. I mean, it's so unplanned. And if he can just get his lower body to work a little bit better through the ball, he is going to be, you know, he's right there, he's so close.

And I, like, even that second drawing last week, if he had a held some pots and got a little bit of momentum, because I mean he potted well and a lot of pots just sort of chived by the hole. And if he had a little bit of momentum on that Friday, you know, he would have made the cut easily and you never know what could have happened on the weekend. But he's, he's close. He's closer than people think. I can assure you that. Yeah, I'm for sure not bearing him, especially considered, you know, everyone in his, in his threesome, missed the cut. It's a really tough golf course, especially if you're not driving it well. I was a little concerned. He wasn't swinging it as freely as he was out in the Bahamas, but I think,

you know, the width of the fairways has a lot to do with that overall difficulty of the course. I mean, you know, Albany has 50 yard wide shareways, and you know, he knows golf golf, obviously he knows Tory Pines as well, but I think the 50 degree weather didn't help either. My thing was, that was going to be a big thing of keeping his back warm and making sure he was list the whole way around, especially, I mean, it was slow out there too. I mean, it was really slow. So, like, I wouldn't read too much until, you know, last week, I think, Dubai this week will be a much better

gauge of how he's playing. And I think just shaking a bit of that rust off, I think he'll be totally fine. Yeah, speaking a few more questions, and I'll let you get out of here, man. I'm taking up a lot of your time. But speaking of 50 yard wide fairways, I've never heard you discuss this topic maybe you haven't

thought that far ahead but do you ever want to get into golf course design in the future? Yeah I mean look I've had a few opportunities already to get into golf course design I'm actually actually in the process of speaking to a few guys and there's an offer on the table for Jack and I did the co-designer golf course in Florida which would be awesome. We've talked about that before and I think you know with what Jack did in the past was like when he first started he I think it was Pete Dye who he teamed up with and started to sort of learn from Pete a little bit and then as he got more comfortable with it, he took on a design team himself and then went out and did his own stuff

but it would just be great to tie it along even just to learn from him and learn from his designers like what goes into designing a golf course and you know something that I would be really interested in one day. I mean I'm still like I'm 27 years of age and my focus in golf is playing golf and trying to win tournaments. But yeah I mean it would be a great interest to get into you know one day whenever you know I'm not competitive anymore and I maybe want to stay within golf but do something a little different and you know at 27 years of age to have the opportunity to tag along with Jack Nickless and see how they go about designing a golf course. I think it would be really cool. Yeah, do you so you travel obviously out everywhere for golf? We talked last time about how much you enjoy your time at home when you're actually able to get it

but I noticed when you went down to South Africa you went down a few days early you you guys did a safari in Kruger while you were down there. I was curious if you had somewhere on your list or somewhere you'd like to go in the world just for solely for personal travel. Golf clubs aren't coming. I'm not sure if you guys are doing a big honeymoon or anything like that but where's somewhere that you want to go in the world for personal travel? Yeah, there's a lot of things. I'd love to go to the Scythe Island in New Zealand. Somewhere I'd love to go to Queenstown and see the way it looks beautiful there.

French Polynesia, Bora Bora, that looks incredible too. There's actually, I think it was like the hundredth anniversary of the National Parks in the US last year. And when I was over there, or when I obviously spent a lot of time in the States, they had this thing on the today show where they were going around a lot of the National Parks and sort of giving you an insight into like Yosemite and White Sands Monument and all this sort of giving you an insight into like, you see a summary and white sand's monument and all this sort of stuff. And I'd love to go and sort of just

to a road trip across the United States and see, because there's so much cool stuff, like I've never been to the Grand Canyon. Like I'd love to see the Hoover Dam. Like all this sort of stuff is awesome. And I'd love to just take a car for a few weeks and go and take a road trip across America and see everything there is.

There you go. So what's, well, in this really lighthearted, I'm curious, do you have any accents that you can impersonate? What's the, can you impersonate an American accent or do you have any go-to accents you can do? I can do it you, can you impersonate an American accent or do you have any, any go to accents you can do? I can do it. Yeah, I can do an American accent. I think, yeah, it's easy to do that. I just, you sort of, it depends. I'm, I'm almost getting to the point where I can distinguish where someone is from an American. Well, like, like, for example, my fiance and her family are from Rochester and it's very newsly up there.

Like they say salad. They're like a salad, they say salad. And like, either a's or right flop, so I can sort of get that. And then, I mean, you can sort of distinguish where everyone's from in this day. I'm not going to try to do the hot cast here. Damn it. No. I'm not going to try to do the actual podcast here. Damn it. No, I'm not going to embarrass myself that much. That's what I was going for.

Well my recently divorced friend that is really good at accents wants to know if a credible Irish accent will help him pick up girls at a bar. It's known to work in the past, yes, that's... Yeah, I mean, I think anyone with an accent in the States has a better chance of picking up someone out of bar. One up advantage. All right, last one. I shouldn't have waited until the very end to ask you about it because I know you're excited about it.

Irish opened this year at Port Stewart. How excited are you for that? What kind of field are we looking at so far? And yeah, in general, you got a new date for it. It's in July, I think this year. How excited are you for the Irish Open? Yeah, so yeah, look very excited for the Irish Open. I mean, it's a tournament that's always been very close to me, but even more so now with having the involvement through the foundation. As you said, yeah, it's this year from the 6th of the 9th of July,

Port Stuart, which is like three or four miles up the road from Port Rush, where the open is in a couple of years time. Great golf course in that zone right, Lynx course, which we think is very important that the Irish open stays on a Lynx venue. I mean, when people come to Ireland to play golf, they want to play links golf. So I think that's very important. I think it's huge that the European Tour have elevated it to one of the Rolex series events.

We're very appreciative that we've worked with Keith Pally and the team and trying to make this big event. I'm one of the biggest on the European Tour. I'm selling it $7 million prize fund. It's two weeks before the open, so there's a nice little bit of a link strategy going into it. Hopefully the weather's a little bit better. We've sort of been unlucky with the weather the last couple of years, but hopefully the

better day in July will help us with that. And then the field, I mean, I feel like the location of the tournament, the date of the tournament, and even the prize fund of the tournament, it really should attract some of the best golfers in the world. Like I'll still ask a few people if they want to come over and play. I know a few people that played at Kandidon a couple of years ago, like Ricky he can't play because he think he's gonna, he's got quitman, he's a week before and then I think he's made a commitment to maybe come back and play the Scottish.

But there's some other guys that I know that are interested to come over and play, and if I can get a few of them from obviously from over on the states, and hopefully it will be a really strong European tour of turn out as well. It should be the best Irish open in years. That's what I was going to say. Are you counting on guys to have that? Was it purposeful to have it two weeks before the open thinking that two guys might come over, maybe spend a week, maybe either play the Scottish Open the next week or rest that week, was it purposeful to try to run it into the open?

Yeah, I was trying to get the data as close to the open as possible. I mean, that was the plan. I think having two links of events running into the open works perfectly. It does that lets guys come and play a links course or links event, get over some jet lag, if they want to play two weeks leading into the major, if they want to play the Irish open then a week off, and then play the open, it opens up a whole bunch of opportunities for guys to come over and get a climatized, play some links golf, and whether they want to play the Irish or the Scottish or both.

But it's definitely a better day for us, and hopefully the guys turn out for it, because it's going to be a great event, great golf course. Yeah, so it's decent defending champions, so it's all good. I'm coming. You've already recruited me. I'm coming this year. Perfect. Yes, exactly. I'm trying to recruit all you guys. I mean, if I can get you guys to come over and and cover it and support the event, that's that can only be a good thing. Say no more, I'm convinced. But I'm gonna let you go, man. I did mean to mention that I really enjoyed your interview. You did with Paul Kymage. I thought that was awesome. And I think it's awesome that you take your time and give it to guys like ourselves and Shane and whatnot.

It's really appreciated by the listeners, appreciated by all of us, and your support of us. It means a lot. So thanks a ton for the time, man. I have a safe trip to Florida. And we'll do it again. Thank you. Thanks for having me on.

As I said, you guys are are I think you guys are the future of what golf coverage is going to look like and anything I can do to support I'm here. Much is better than most. That is better than most. Better than most. Different!