No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - NLU Podcast, Episode 672: Danielle Kang

Episode Date: April 20, 2023

Ahead of the LPGA's first major of the year, Soly catches up with Danielle Kang to talk all things LPGA and major championship golf as well as her lessons with Butch Harmon, her career goals and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I'm going to be the right club today. Yes! That is better than most. I'm not in. That is better than most. Better than most. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the No-Ling. A podcast, Sally here, got an interview coming with Danielle Kang ahead of this week's chevron championship. We talked a lot of stuff, really enjoyed talking wedges with her and how she's improved

in that, talking Butch Harmon, talking about the state of the women's game, talking about a lot of things. One request that they did have, I know Danielles had some health issues in recent weeks and months and they'd asked that they just wanted to keep that information private and wanted to focus on other parts of what she has going on and want to thank our partners Cisco for helping set up this interview and for providing innovative technology partnerships and investments throughout the game of golf to drive positive change. Cisco is is teaming up tomorrow, enabling the most connected, inclusive and accessible version of the game yet for players, fans,

and operators throughout the sport. Tune in this week to the Chevron Championship. And thank you Danielle for the time. And here is the interview. All right. What's going on in Danielle Kang's world? Give us an update on everything going on in your life. Everything going on in my life.

Well, not everything. But just give us an update. Come going on in your life. Everything going on in my life. Well, not everything, but just give us an update. Come on. I finally came home. I haven't been home in a couple of months and. Home is Vegas for people that don't know. Yeah, I'm in Las Vegas. I've been running all the waters and, you know, running the washing machine that what do you call dishwashers?

So everything's working fine. I have to check all the little check offs and seeing if the hot water still comes out, so that's what I'm doing today. I want to talk about some golf stuff, but the first thing I got to ask you about is tell me about the safari you went on. You've been recently dealing with some injuries,

you took some time away from golf, tell us about that. So I took some time off last year because of the injuries. I know it's been a lot of quote unquote injuries reported by me in the last couple of years and I apologize for that, but you know, I can't really help what's happening. But I took a few months off of golf and I thought to myself, you know, how about if I don't play for a long time, how about if I don't get to practice, I lose my game, all this went through my mind, but long story short I was fine and like the game was fine. So I thought to myself, why don't I just go

to Kenya and I've been wanting to go there for years and I just decided to do it. Another player named Julia Molinaro's family actually helps out with planning the safaris in Kenya. So she really helped me out to plan heading to Masai Mara, to Sauruni Samboo, to Dianne Beach, and it was probably one of the best trips of my life. Gosh, that's always something I've wanted to do as the Masai Mara. I've done Southern Africa, but never made it to see migrations or anything like that. You got to see some animals too. I got to see some hunting and some killing. And there was times, I mean, this line was eating the zebra and it was eating its face.

And I was actually kind of scared because we were very close. And the guides want us to have the best eye was like, okay, we're a little bit too close. Like can we back up a little bit? The guides want us to have the best eye was like, okay, we're a little bit too close. Like can we back up a little bit? And then we've got the hyenas on the standby that we've got the eagles waiting to, then the vultures and I'm going, all right, I don't wanna feel a bit endangered here

and I'm a little scared right now, but it was weird to feel that I was at the bottom of the food chain out there. And it was kind of exciting and thrilling and we went to go see the rhinos, the two white rhinos and they were on foot and one decided to charge so we ran for our lives and I'm pretty sure a lot of things went through my mind. We were fine, everyone was safe, but I was thinking, how do I escape a rhino attack? Do I play dead? Do I dodge his horn?

Like, what do I do? And I just, my mom was with me. She ran into a bush. I was sprinting and I stopped sprinting because I thought the rhino was going to turn and run into her. It was something that I will never forget. And it was pretty cool. What's it like transitioning back into golf after this time off, as your perspective when your career changed at all? A lot of changes yet not.

I do feel really good about where my game has headed. I feel that I'm hitting it a bit further, but more consistent, my dispersions a bit better. We're on the green. My potter has been pretty hot and I like the way I feel over the pot. So I think I'm transitioning and progressing in the right direction with where I want my game to head and excited about it, excited about the season, actually. I've read where you have maybe a little different perspective on I don't need to practice. I don't need to play golf every single day. I don't need to practice the season actually. I've read where you have maybe a little different perspective on. I don't need to practice.

I don't need to play golf every single day. I don't need to practice every single day. I kind of, is there a before and after, you know, kind of of how you treated things before the time off and how you do now? Definitely. I believe that I have to approach the game a bit differently. Every day, the way I have to warm up, the way I have to start my days is a bit different. The way I have to warm up to, his balls is a bit different. So, priorities have changed on how I sustain my body more so than sustaining how to hit a sub-iron or how to hit a five-iron.

I have another aspect that I have to keep up with, whether it's warm-ups to cool downs, to stretching, to workouts, to physios. All those are the things that I have to keep up. I have to keep up in order for me to play the best golf that I can play. So I think the priority is changing is a big difference for me, is because I've always known to just be a range bug

or practice bug, and I think that's a condense a little bit. You're 30 years old now. You're a veteran now on the LPGA tour. You just said it there. How long you want to stick around and what you still want to accomplish. What are the, what are the, what are the thought processes like on both of those things? I have a short-term goal, long-term goal. I have little goals, big goals. I'm not going away anytime soon, but there are things that I really do want to do this year and accomplish this year. I have a different team around me right now, and I think we're showing some good results and good consistency. So I'm excited to see the mid part of the season, and I know some people have thought that I started off kind of slow.

And I'm okay with it because I've always kind of started off the year very, you know, fast and winning or third place, second place and things like that. But I don't think it's about just finishing second or third place, building the building the game up to where you want to, you know, play the best to your ability to. So I think I'm very excited. No, I think I know I'm very excited for this entire season and what's upcoming for the next couple of years. Do you feel, you know, longevity-wise, is golf something you want to do, you know, kind of forever? Or do you see a time period where you maybe don't want to play professional golf? I'm always very honest with everybody. I don't see myself playing my whole life. No, I there are I do see the end where I don't want to play golf, but that doesn't conflict with that conflicts with what I feel now is

because I absolutely love playing right now, but I don't think I want to do this forever. Can you kind of take us just through what that is like for because you know for a lot of listeners of this show are probably more familiar with the men's side of professional golf than they are the women's side of professional golf. But it's a different timeline for the women. Can you kind of help explain what that, you know, kind of how that thought process works? So my timeline will be a bit different for a lot of other women. I can't speak for other women, right?

If it's women versus men's timeline. I guess a long journey of this career is a bit shorter than the men's, right, guys that are playing in the senior tour. I mean, I don't know how old they are. They can get up to 60s and 50-60s is nothing. And people are still competing on the PGA tour in the 40s. And we don't see a lot of that in the women's game. And I understand.

I think it depends on the priority, right? So I'm not a mom's. I don't know what it feels like to be a mom being married and have a family and being traveling. I don't know what that feels like. I'm sure it's really tough. I can only guess. But from my perspective, I might sound selfish, but there's so many other things that I want to do in my lifetime. And golf is something that I'd love to do now, but it's not something that I was very intrigued or was entuned with when I first started off. I was good at it, but it wasn't my passion. But in the last years, in the late years, I formed a passion and love

for the game. That makes me want to stick around until I want to do what I want to do and why I'm playing and I needed to write out why I'm playing why I'm here what I want to get to what I want to do and it is all about me at that point and I might sound a bit selfish or narcissistic in that eye sense but it's about me when I play golf but I'm very thankful for what golf like what kind of doors golf opens up for me. And the opportunity that I get to utilize by being a professional golfer that is playing well, I think I could be around for that a bit longer. And for other women golfers,

I'm not sure why I can't really say for them on why they retire earlier than men's, but I can say whether it's income to pension, to family, to kids, to, there's another life for moms and dads, and I understand that that could be dads and play golf, but I don't know what it's like to go through pregnancy and be a top world athlete either, and I can't speak for that. So I don't think I'm the right candidate to BS folksman for that one. My wife is pregnant right now, and I now I want to go back and watch all the all the golf terms I've seen were women have competed in one while being pregnant. I'm even more in all of it all. It's insane. It really is insane. Yeah. I mean, I have enough friends that are pregnant now, and I'm just, it's insane

what they do. So I, I, I have a new respect for moms, and I just, I just stay out of it, because I'm not one. And I go, okay, bye. Well, it's interesting kind of what you, you're, you're talking about there seems like you're aware of the, I don't know, I don't know if you call it the selfish nature of what you're talking about. But I feel like that's kind of a necessity for professional athletes in general and professional golfers of you kind of can't do it all. You can't give 100% of yourself to everything, right? It has to. There's a little bit of selfishness that comes with I want I need to focus on this. I need to travel to this. I need to play this tournament on this side of the world.

And I need to be gone this many weeks a year or a kid is if you have acid, nobody wins. You're traveling like a little bit and you're miserable and you're not getting much out of it. And it's an interesting kind of perspective to go through and yeah, that's not surprising, I guess, to hear some of that. I think I used to work a lot when I'm perceiving as a golfer, but sometimes just creating those kind of boundaries and knowing what you want and how you're going to get the best out of

you is I think is the most important way to approach life sometimes. So we're recording this during Masters week, but this is going to air during ahead of the the first Chevron challenge at Carlton Woods. Have you been to the golf course yet? And what's it going to be like moving away from from Palm Springs for the first major of the year? I have not played out there yet, but I already have my friend Lisa McCloskey, my college teammate who was on tour for a few years with me. She was one of my closest friends. She actually lives in Texas, so I'm excited to see her because she's going to come visit me in Texas. So this is how I kind of view tournaments.

Sometimes I've been on tour for 12 years now. I just want to know who I'm going to run and do when I go to events. With that said, I am excited to play a major first major. I heard good things about Carlton. Yeah, I've heard. It's people kissing Carlton Oaks. So I've heard good things. Oaks course, I've heard, yeah, I've heard it's people kissing Carlton Oaks. So I've heard good things. Oaks course, I think, right?

At Carlton Oaks. Yeah. So I didn't want to say Carlton was Oaks. I was like, I'm just going to call it Carlton. It's a new era. Everybody's trying to figure it out right now. I know. And I know I might not be a fan favorite by saying this, but really

thankful for actually moving is because I have to, you know, highlight the idea that Chevron has up the purse by 60% for our first major championship. And I think that says a lot about who they are and what they're trying to accomplish with sports. And we need sponsors like that to elevate our game and to push us forward and that jump that gun. And up to a percent by 60% is a lot personally. It's just, I understand that we have an nostalgia and we know that we want to be advantage and we're all

to and we have that poppies pond. But I believe that traditions could be made at any given moment, any given time. And we are a history history every second in history. So I hope that we get to do something cool there in Houston, and I don't know what's in front of us and what's what we're headed towards, but I'm excited for the unknown more so than anything. And whether it's good or bad, I'm sure we're going to get through it together. And we are the history of the first major of being playing there. So I hope we get to build on that and have something grounded for the next generation to

come. Well, I think it's something we probably talked about the last time you're on the podcast is the somewhat of an arms race. There is in women's golf between the major championships to say, you know, U.S. of women's open purses now this, A.I, AIG women's open is this KPMG's been a big driver of this. It's kind of, yeah, you got to step up your game. If you want to have a major, it kind of brings me to my next question. And I want to know what makes a major, a major in your mind. I think most listeners have, again, a good idea of the majors on

the men's side. And on the women's side, there's the women's PGA from KPMG, the US women's open AIG women's open, AK, the women's British. And then there's the chevron and the avion. And admittedly, I have trouble placing them at time. So I'm just curious your reaction to what makes the chevron a major, what makes the avion a major? What major means to me is the prestigiousness of the golf course, the purse, and the strength of the field. Those three things. That's just the pinnacle of being a major championship. We want to play against the best in the world.

And I want to play at the most testing golf course. There is out there. We can play any golf course. That's not the issue, but it's a testament to your game. That will challenge you off the tee from into the fairways sloping around the greens to testing your chipping, to pitching, to putting. I think that's what major championship is. Strength of field and the difficulty of the golf course.

Now the purse is, I believe, cherry on top. And I know that, like I said, I'm not a fan favorite when I say that, is because we expect the major to have bigger purse, but for me, I think that the really important part is that's the sponsor's aspect of it. And I can't tell sponsors what to do and what they should be doing,

but I can't ask them to host us and you know showcase us at the best places in the world. Like, Baltic Rome, Sahali, Pebble Beach, LACC, those are the places that we want to go. And I think that that's what makes a major a major. Pebble Beach this year, I mean, I got to imagine there's some excitement amongst in the locker room about that. There's a lot of excitement. I've actually never played Pebble Beach. So I've heard big things about it, and I'm really excited to go.

It's on the ocean. I love you know that part. It's pretty. I do know that. It's very pretty. It's I've seen it. Yes, I've seen the whole Pebble Beach look. I'm very excited to go somewhere so iconic.

Yeah. I have to look at the golf as a fan more so that a player. Sometimes it's because I wasn't a golf fan growing up. I wasn't really into the game of golf even when I was playing. I just played it because I liked it. And as I'm learning golf and learning the history of the game, even now, that will be just iconic, right? And for us to be able to be showcased at iconic places like that, not just for an AT&T program, but for a major championship. They're going to set it up in a major way.

And I think that says a lot about where we're headed. And I think that's where I'm excited to be. And then Walton Heath, I mean, the AIG women's open future venues are also incredible. I mean, Walton Heat is Heathland course in England. I don't know if you've ever been there or gotten to play much golf around there, but yeah, you're going to love that one too. I mean, it's, it's, I heard it's not as lengthy. So fingers crossed and you'll play as well there because I am not a,

I'm not the biggest learning span. Why is that? I don't know. I just can't trust that it's gonna roll out where it's supposed to roll out. I like to just throw the ball where he needs to go. You said you like the challenge. Come on. That's what's so challenging about it. That's one challenge that I have not grasped right now. It's very challenging for me. So I want to try and have fun with it. But hey, maybe not this year

because it's supposedly not that lengthy. So it's heathlin golf, which I would describe as a hybrid between links and parkland. I mean, it's firm and fast conditions usually, but just without the wind, without the wind swept nature that you're going to get on the coast of a length golf course, right?

So wind also is fine for me. I just don't like the flatness of it. Well, he's pretty flat. So I know. I like the Jack McCliff design kind of thing where I can see the entire green. I want to be able to have the perception and the imagination so I can play the shots on where I see it.

But I'm weak with where it's elevated. And I don't know where the bottom is, but I'm learning so it's a challenge I did well at PV palace Verde's last week, so we're good. We're headed in the right direction It's gonna say that's the kind of fun that course is kind of a fun Architecture that I enjoy but I see I would say to that like Jack Nicholas course wouldn't make you think and be as creative as much as a Walton Heath kind of golf course will kind of force you you to be creative on where you land it. What kind of slopes you're going to use to bring balls in and things like that? I can't see it.

Yeah, you got to learn it, though. That's the part you got to learn it. That's what practice rounds are for. My IQ in the golf course is not that high. It's so funny to see, you know, just how I love getting into the mindset of how you guys view golf courses, right? Because everyone views it differently. You see it based on, you know, you do this for a living. So it's based on how well you're going to likely succeed at that course is going to fit,

how well it fits your eye versus I view it obviously through what's fun and what's entertaining to watch on television. So I'm, yeah, that's what makes me excited about your guys' venues. And it's been, it's been that way for, I mean, pine needles was, was, see, I would classify pine needles as being somewhat similar style in terms of fast and firmness and sloping as what you'll see at the AIG Women's Open. Okay, that's cool. Did you like pine needles? Yeah, that was my first US Open actually when I was 14 years old.

2007. I played golf for about a year at that point. You see this is the part where I just want to fight you. You play golf for a year and you're playing the US women's opening. Year and a half-ish. Yeah, year and a half-ish. I didn't. I didn't sign up for it. So I know people think I'm very arrogant by saying that. Is when I said I don't know what the US open is, but I didn't sign up. So my brother signed me up. I played the local qualifier.

I ended up making it and I have to go play like Merced and I didn't want to go because it was too far and then they signed me up. I played the local qualifier. I ended up making it and I had to go play like Marseille and I didn't want to go because it was too far and then they made me go. And then I made it. Then I didn't interview and everyone's like, oh, exciting, are you to play the ESO? And I'm like, I don't know what that is. I don't know why I'm here.

I'm more pissed off that I'm here right now because I had to miss my grandpa's funeral and I just was just upset. And then, but I didn't realize for people around me that it was one of the biggest deals that I'm playing in the US Open. So I learned then what the major was or what major championship was, what US Open was. So I was still learning. I was just starting the game. So give me a little bit of a break. Is there is is this something that's like, are you started like seriously playing the year before it?

Like are there pictures of you swinging golf club like at age six, age seven that are gonna poke a hole in this story because I it's still so hard to believe that you're there might be a photo of me doing like a turkey contest maybe like with the golf club and I was like nine, but I don't think I ever, like hit balls to me on. I never went to the golf course.

I mean, like I'm sure it's like holding a basketball, right? I have held it, but no, I just started when my brother started and I just practiced as much as he practiced. So I just wanted to hang out. And then he signed me up because I even asked him recently and he's saying, why did you sign me up for that? And like, what made you want to sign me up for that? And he said to someone that I just hit it really far

when I was a kid because I was in martial arts. And he said that I just thought my sister could make it because she just hits it really far. If she just learns how to put it. So I just, no, I guess he was right. He figured that part out. So you're top 15 in the world right now. I'm curious, what is the difference between you right now

and being number one in the world? What would you summarize that difference? I think what I was top 10 in the world, top five in the world for the past few years consistently. I believe that I'm in a better place now than I was. My game is in a better place now than it was the last few years consistently. I believe that I'm in a better place now than I was. My game is in a better place now than it was the last few years is because it's more of the subtle understanding of your game and yourself on the golf course.

I do believe that my game was very immature when I started off on tour because like I said I was 18 I played golf for five years at that point and I'm professional golfer I can't compete. Some people have five years, 10 years, 20 years under their belt. It's the maturity of the game. So being world number one versus number 10 or 15 or 20, I think there's a lot of subtle, subtle team. You just have to know how to manage your time, how to manage your game at every situation that comes your way every single day and every single week. And having that team around you, I think, is a big, big help.

Having a consistent coach that will elevate you, have you a consistent physio and workout trainer that knows your body, having a good caddy that knows your game, knows your personality inside out. Those things are going to make a difference. One or two shots by the end of the week. And I think that's what makes a difference. What's it been like now to actually, for the first time in women's golf,

have some strokes gain data, right? Some information about how your numbers are trending. I know it's kind of a manual input system that caddies are doing to get that data. But have you have you gleaned anything from looking at, you know, hey, maybe I do this better than I thought. Maybe I do this worse than I thought or gotten anything from that information. I don't mean no disrespect, but I don't check those numbers is because because it's manually inputted. Right.

I don't trust it. And if I go off by those numbers, we should be shooting 62s every single week. If I looked at the dispersion of somebody so and so 165 yards to 205 yards, it's to me, it's unrealistic numbers. And if I go off by the data as stats, I mean, I love numbers. Yes, I'm, yeah, whatever. I love calculation. Math is something that you can't lie on. Math is something that it hasn't answered. And there's an equation. So if I go off by those statistics, it doesn't make sense.

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NX 10. Again, precisionprogolf.com slash NLU code no laying up for $20 off your NX 10. Let's get back to Daniel Kang. What do you use and do you use anything internally to kind of measure your performance? I have a rough draft of my staff is what I would say is what we have right now. We can't compare that to the PGA tour stats and PGA tour players is because there is is accurate to inches. And you can compare yards to inches. That's how I see it. But I do respect that we do at least have a rough drop of stats now. Hopefully in the next coming years, we'll have a bit more tuned in and more set in accuracy with those things just to showcase what girls are capable of doing and how their dispersions with

things or numbers are better than men. I think that'd be really cool to see. I know that some girls control over 220 yards is better than a lot of guys that'd be really cool to see. I know that some girls control over 220 yards is better than a lot of guys. Some girls as rescues and three would go straight out of my nine hours. So I think seeing those numbers would be really cool to the amateur golfer, but until I have the actual numbers,

I can't give you a rough draft estimate of what the stats can or can't be. That makes sense. That makes a lot of sense. Yeah, sorry. No, I know it's it's been helpful to us at least in the media to be like, Hey, what's going on with so and so to go check and be like, Oh, man, you know, even if it's not down to the decimal point that we want it to be

as like, Oh, the puddings falling off or the drivers falling off or or things like that. But I'm most interested to talk to you about Blitch Harmon. I know we've talked a bit about some stories you got you have in the past, but I'm ready to nerd out to about Butch Harmon. I know we've talked a bit about some stories you have in the past, but I'm ready to nerd out on some golf swing stuff and other lessons you've learned with him. There's a great golf digest video I watch today of you guys talking wedges here.

And you talked about how he helped you flight at lower with wedges. How did you do that? What did you learn from him on how to flight wedges lower? He just told me to hit it lower. All right, but well but that's super helpful. Thank you very much for that. Butch's method of teaching has his ways.

And he said to me that there is a reason to his madness. And I respect that tremendously. I don't know what he does half the time, but then it results into how he's one of the results to be. He has helped me flood my wedges. He's helped me very much in control around the greens, and I think that that was very important for making helping me score better on par five than things, and he's helped me be able to manage my own swing without hitting him all the time. And I think that that's important for him. That was one of his goals and priorities for me to learn is so that I self-function because he doesn't travel and you know he's in Vegas and he wants me to

know my swing more than anybody else though, so that I know how to fix it on the golf course or I know how to go down the checklist and see what and be realistic on what how the shots came out on what it could have been and what it should have been. So I think that's something that I really learned from him and I'm thankful for that. Yeah, you can't walk off the golf course after every bad round and be demanding that the coach help you fix it, right? You got to be some internal governor checks in there. But what was your first wedge lesson like with putt Charmin? My first wedge lesson actually that was the first lesson I ever had with him. I wasn't hitting my wedge as well, so I could either hit it the yardage and left and right or at the pin long and short. I didn't have the combo.

And then so he told me to shallow out my swing and I said, I don't know what shallow means and then he tossed the club and just walked off. So what does it mean? He came back though. He came back though. He told me to play and then he came back and said, can you hit a low draw?

And I said, I can't. And then I was hitting this low draw. And I said, why didn't you just say that? He said, we're not gonna go there. So that was my first watch lesson. So I'm guessing shallow and draw has same similarity. That's what I was learning back then. And that hitting a low draw helps the control

the ball to better around the greens. There you go. Okay. The pitching. So do you do like for like an 80 yard wedge shot now, do you are you trying to hit like a low draw or how do you now hit it low? I mean, that really depends on the why. So I mentioned previously that I do work with Drew Stuckel as well. So that's my coach. And he's a bit more hands on with me. And with him, with working with him,

my angle of attack has decreased by multiple degrees. So my max wedge that I used to hit, my 58, sorry, max number that I used to hit with my 58 degrees was 70 yards. That was my max ever like 67 yards 70 yards But after working on certain things now it flies 83 so When I have now I have more to play with because Of angle of attacking lower now the wedge I could flight it a bit better it flies further spins better

So now I can play around with how I'm gonna to hit that. Would you ask me 80 or what shot? I could take a 54 degree, open the face and fly it down, pitch it, pitch it and spin one stop it. I could hit a 58 degree, leave the face square and hit a higher one and spin it or open the face and hit it 85 yards and spin it back. Like those are the things that I can play around with because of the ball speed. That's why that PG tour throw game is so unbelievable. I mean this sounds this sounds one like Phil talking about wedges or that Dennis Rodman where that that jiffery's you know throwing the ball around. I tip it this way. I go this way. I do this way. I love it. It's awesome when I talk. Yeah,

because it's imagination, and you can do whatever you want with it, but you have to have the technique to get there. But how do you change your angle of attack? Like what does that mean? I know what steep is and I know what shallow is, but what's the process in doing it? It's, you know, is it?

So what him and I've worked on for the past few months is to be able to, because I'm very under, Everyone knows that I'm a very wide swing, super long and wide, and then I use a lot of my body to go through. And I wanted to time it a bit less, because timing goes off when there's other factors into play, whether it's wind, whether it's rain, whether it's pressure, tension, down the stretch, whatever it may be, you can't time things as well as you want to when other factors are in place. So I wanted to get rid of that a bit more and Drew has worked with me on how to time it less so that I flip it a bit less. Like I'm less at the ball flipping or manipulating it. Which means it's going to go where

my body goes and my club is kind of dragging with it. At that point, the club is staying the way it's supposed to stay. It has decreased the loft a little bit. But the ball goes higher. Because golf is a game of opposite, right? If you have a better angle of attack, the ball will spin up the face a bit more, the whole technology behind the R&D, and then it just goes, yeah. So it's a bit better. Is this all stuff you've learned in the last few years, or is where was your knowledge on this

like five years ago, would you say? I'm not that great, no. I mean, I'm a slow learner on the golf course. I, golf is one of the worst sports in the world or game in the world is because you learn the same, you make the same mistake every day. It drives you mental, but you have to learn and you have to figure out why it happened, how it happened, and how to not make it happen, but it's how to decrease the chance of happening it again, happening again. So, or giving

yourself the best opportunity to hit the best shot. I think creating that percentage to be a bit higher, making that percentage to be a bit higher is my ultimate goal. And I think having a better angle of a top will have a better spin, which will have better results, which will have better dispersion,

and like ball speed, et cetera, et cetera. It's like the whole snowball, you know? Well, I have to imagine, especially with your timeline of when you got really good at golf, it would be pretty impossible for you to know all the things that made you great at it, right? I mean, there's that, there's one way of playing, I imagine high level competitive golf,

which is a little bit of ignorance to all of the details and the thoughts that go into it. And the no man's land you'd wanna be is in, but is knowing a little bit, but not knowing how to fix it, or you dive in deep into the details of it to really understand all the things the club is doing throughout it. And it seems like you're on the upswing of that part of it.

I think when people are younger, they play a wallast because we are fearless, and we are ignorant. And the less I knew the better it was when I was a kid, it's because it's just a fearlessness of it. It doesn't matter. We're not thinking about reputting, we're not thinking about what happens

or what ifs or buts, you just go and smash it. You don't think about where the ball's gonna go, you don't think about the putt and then the delicacy and the finesse of those lines. You just go and hit the putt. And I think that kind of ignorance or fearlessness is a big factor, but it's how to harness that fearlessness and how to tap back into that whilst knowing all the knowledge is the ultimate cool.

What is, uh, what's it like working with Butch specifically on, I mean, he's worked with, I mean, pretty much you name it in the world of professional golf. Is it pretty much every time he's teaching you something, is it like, well, here's how Greg Norman did it, or here's what Phil Michelson did, or what I did with Tiger Woods. What can you glean from his experience of working with, so many names that so many people would recognize?

I don't think he tries to teach you what other people have done. I think he tries to make what you have better. And I think that's what he does best. One other big change you've had going on, your caddy, Oli Brett is no longer on your bag. What's that? What kind of drove that decision or that you guys were together for quite some time? And what was that process like?

I have a new caddy, his name is Brad and he caddy for MB Park for the past 16 years and it's been, it was like we had a little bit of adjustment time but we're right back on schedule so I'm really thankful for how he's helped me out at PV actually. And it was really interesting to see how he sees the golf course and how I see the golf course. And it does take adjustment time as because I was with my old caddy for quite a few years. And he was with his older player for a long time. And it's been very, very good transition for me. And yeah, we had some good results right now I don't think we've finished up so I popped in last like three events and I'm excited to see what we have in store for

the rest of the year. What's it been like the on the LPJ tour in general the transition from having Mike Wahn a commissioner to having Molly come in I'm wondering if you if you feel that on the individual player level or what that what that transition's been like in your opinion. The transition's been a bit different. I, I miss Mike. Mike has been around for almost 10 years, 11 years, I don't exactly know how long he was with us for. When he calls me, he knows I screen his phone calls is because I know he's going to call me somewhere and fly somewhere. And then one time he left me a voicemail saying, I'm not asking you to come anywhere. And so your phone's, I called not asking you to come anywhere and do your phones. I called him right back and I know you were screening it.

I said, every time I pick up, you're making me fly somewhere. What's up, Kamish? So we saw a really good relationship. And I'm really thankful for Mike Juan that as soon as he became the USJ CEO, he made the women's US open purse $10 million. And that's something that I really would like to highlight is because I'm very thankful for that

because he's still thinking of the future of the game. Not just the LPGA as an ex-commissioner or what he used to do for us or what he could have done for us. No, it's just he's focusing on where he's at, what he's doing and how to make the game better and how to make the game better for us. And I think he did an awesome, amazing, he took an amazing step in making our event,

just $10 million just like that. And then AIG stepped up to, you know, thankful for AIG to stepping up in Lera Purse and PGA of America. It just kind of, and keeps rolling to Chevron. So it's been, it's been good. I think we're going to be quote unquote, record breaking, purse for the next, I don't know, decade. Because we were starting where we started off time 15 years

ago was in such a different era that the building is going to keep going, right? So when they say Rome wasn't built in a day, I'm hoping that we're still in the process. And I think we're headed in the right direction. We've obviously seen a tremendous upheaval in professional golf on the men's side in the past year. I'm curious kind of what's your,

what do you see as the future of the LPGA tour? Are you bullish on the future of the LPGA tour? Do you feel like the tour is on a good path and in a good direction? And I'm just curious what your reaction is to that. I don't have a direct answer to that yet. I think I mean I'm not the commissioner so I don't really know what goes on behind the scenes twenty for seven but I do believe that we can expedite it a little bit faster

that's how I perceive it. I want there to be a bit more fan engagement. I want there to be a bit more highlights and women's golf. The purse is the purse. I know that the boys play for $20 million a week, and then there's the whole thing with the live, and then the PGA tour, and then now they're playing for X amount of money, and every week someone's winning $4 million to $5 million to this and that. I'm like, I see that, but that doesn't correlate with me. I don't know what it's like to win $5 million or $4 million or such.

But that's not what I'm looking at to become what I want to become. That's them. And I just look at what we have now. And I want to know how we can expedite our process. Utilizing what we have, utilizing the players is because we've been around. And I think players want this to become the ultimate dream to down the road and for the next generation and for the game to grow. So I think that LPGA could expedite a bit more, but it's not LPGA.

And necessarily it's them plus the partners. And I don't exactly know how or what, but I know that they're doing everything they can to do the best that they can. I think if we just, I don't know, I think there's like a whole other sense to it, right? But it seems like we're doing fine. I'm pretty happy with where we're at right now. I know that there's more focus on the whole of LPGA tour being able to make a living. First is just the top players and I agree with that too. I want, you know, there's a lot of, we can only look at the bag, but we can always look at the good.

I mean, you got the majors now, we got enough, we have a full schedule, even more. We've got an international crown back. We've got Soulheim Cup. We have to look at so many positive things that I'm very proud of the work that they've done with a lot of changes. That's come towards LPJ's way. I was going to say what's it like having a team, an international team competition? Two international team competitions come in this year with another Soulheim Cup year, obviously. But we know how much you love the team competitions, but how often you've been checking the international crown standings. I absolutely love playing team events. I thrive on them. I don't know. It's just one. I love having a teammate. I actually think that live is doing a really cool thing by having a team aspect of it because you can root for a team, right?

And I really, really like that. And and why I say that is because it's got this so individual, and to have, I always say to people is so and so is not my competition. She is not my enemy. She is not my, anything, she's a competitor, but you have to be the entire field every week, just because I be Lexi Thompson doesn't mean I'm going to win the tournament.

Just because Lexi Thompson beats me doesn't mean she's going to win the tournament. So I think that kind of aspect of mindset of that, instead of now being like, hey, we've got a team to root for. We have that, like, whether it's the Aces, whether it's the Ironheads. Like, we got the name of it, and I find it so cool. And now we've won international crowd. I've got, like, we got the name of it and I find it so cool. And Malibu and International Proud,

I've got that crew and I've known Malia and Lexi. I mean, we went to the Olympics together. So I'm excited to see them on Chateau and Lexi yesterday. We've got a new and upcoming rookie, which is, she's not a rookie right now, but she's rookie for the team, Liliya Vu. My, one of my childhood best friend is actually on her bag. I've been friends with him since I was 11 years old.

He's like a brother. I've known him for 19 years. And so we were having lunch yesterday and he's on the bag for Liliya. So it's just like a whole, like, we're really excited. And then you got spain, then you got Stacey Lewis that's captain. I don't know.

I'm just really happy that there's many good things happening this year. And I'm just excited. May 4 through 7th this year for those that that don't know. And the force be with us. Sorry. I had to do it. I had to do it. I'm sorry. I should edit that out for you, but I'm going to leave that in now just so you get a little bit more embarrassed. But it's at Harding Park this year. it's been what since 2018 that it's happened. I think the last one was in Korea but then 2020 was obviously canceled for reasons that are obvious.

I was really sad about that because I was on the team and then I know they didn't continue in 2022 and then I was sad about that and I was like, okay, now I am on the custom making the team. I go, I have to make this game. I'm not going to not play it the third time that I'm technically qualified. I go, no, it's happening. So it's in San Francisco where I was born. I got a lot of friends coming out and I think it's a really cool way of playing it. And I want it to be as elevated as, you know, I know that it's, quote, unquote, not the president's cup, right?

And everyone gets, it's different by the era, but I want people to get really excited about the international crown as much as they do with the other ones, because it's a team vibe, right? Well, it's everybody. It's not just, you know, U.S. versus Europe, or, you know, it's everybody. It's everybody.

Everyone's got to, you know, it's a really cool event that I think it, it doesn't, it just takes time and years for it to gain the notoriety and attention that it probably deserves and it's still in its infancy phase and got disrupted by COVID, but I'm really excited that it's coming back. It's okay. We're gonna do we're gonna play some good golfers showcase some good things and cool things so I'm excited. Like I said, we're part of history and it's gonna get to where it needs it needs to get to. And as long as we do our part, it's going to be fine. Well, there's just the point you made about, you know, if I beat Lexi and you know, you know, you doesn't mean you win the tournament all that is like, there's so many mixed ways you can view success in a golf tournament. Like a fifth place finish can be a really great week. And, uh, but, you know, you didn't win. So you don't go home to trophy yet. Match

play or team play is very binary. It is zero or one. Everything is very binary of did you win or did you lose? And that is so much easier for fans like coming off the WGC match play a couple weeks ago. Like that, you know, is just it's there's there's there's a reason why almost every other sport is like that because it's just very easy for vads to follow. So yeah, I always I always tell the I always tell the baseball players and the football

players when they travel a lot. And I always say, well, at least you have a home game. And that's what I miss the most. Or I feel like I wish I had is that home, that home by the home fans, that home crowd. And I think we don't have that. That's why when I have events in Las Vegas, it feels that. That's when I have the event in like home and when Max homo

LA, like it's the biggest he wanted and like at his it doesn't happen often for having that home vibe with is just so important and anytime there's a team. So how did how did Inverness regards to a soulheim cup I know you love your TV time around the around the Soulheim Cup and

you did not shy away from the the Rockest first-T atmosphere there. I you know Inverness I had a very fond memory from there because of my win the previous year I won the dry monger championship from there. Nothing ever beats my first soulheim cup at Des Moines. It was one of the best experiences of my life on that first team. And I know that we had more people at Inverness, but that wasn't for me, the atmosphere, the the pinnacle of what I was expecting and it exceeded it. So now I have expectations, right? And before I didn't know what I was expecting, and it's just exceeded it, so I don't know. And I'm excited to go to Spain. I'm also excited

for it to come back in 2024. We have back-to-back. So it'll be good. I don't really care whether it's every year or every other year, as long as we have team events, it's fun. Yeah, I think I've been a big proponent of doing those every single year. The weights are too long and the rivalries, you know, it's the best. There's a reason why like Alabama and Auburn play every year. Like it's you play it every year, like it's really, really fun. And so you have to be able to don't know 23 and 24 are going back to back to, I believe, kind of driven by getting opposite of the Ryder Cup, which had to bump back a year. and you guys stayed on the same schedule that you were on, but it's a good, good,

strong development, I think. So, all right. So this is going to be dated content, but I think if you got this right, it would be really funny for people to hear in a couple of weeks when we do air this, but who's your master's winner? We're recording this on Wednesday before the master's kicks off. Predict who your winner is gonna be. Dustin.

Dustin Johnson. Okay, that will, that will look very, that'll be hilarious if that, if that turns out, this one, this does get aired, but. I want Dustin to win. I don't really watch a lot of them, so I don't know who's hot right now,

but I just want Dustin to win. As you say, again, it is masters week. Do you have any traditions to watch the masters? Are you, uh, are you, uh, do you watch the majors at all on the men's side or anything like that? Nope. Nothing. No, only time I ever watched the masters was when Justin won. I watched the last nine last nine or six holes. Yeah. I watched the last nine or six holes.

No, I don't really like to watch golf that much. I'm not really sorry. I know I'm not a, that's not a favorite, but I know it's good answer. I wasn't, I wasn't raised watching Game of Golf and the Master Sunday. I wasn't that person. So I love soccer and I love watching football. I'm not a big and hockey, but I'm not a big sitting and watching golf for like an eight-hour day But I do like the men's What do you call teeny time is because they do jump from shop to shop to shop and so I it covers a lot of players And I do respect that quite a bit

Then I can just watch a bunch of players playing at the same time. I know you guys were playing This past week during the Augusta National Women's Amateur, but have you gotten to watch any of that and what's kind of your reaction to seeing, you know, the young amateur women getting to compete at Augusta National? I think I watched the highlights of it

when the winner highlights and then the playoffs. What was the question? Just what's your reaction to that? I'm enchanting towards the question of how long is it going to be until we have a ladies masters at Augusta? I think that would be insane. I don't think we need to have a ladies. I don't think we need to have a ladies.

No, I don't believe so. And I know that once again, I'm not going to be the favorite in that because I like to focus on what we need to do and what we have now. I don't really think that we need to really invade the masters. I mean, we're never gonna live up to the men's masters. And I don't think we need to compete against it. I think if we want to play a guest star,

that's a different story. But to create a women's masters, I don't think it's really a necessity because that's history that's been built for decades. It's seeded in that route. because that's history that's been built for decades. It's seeded in that root. And we can create our own, we can go somewhere else, we can name our AIG Women's Open trophy.

I think we can start with that because they have the Claret jug. Like what's our trophy called? I want, you know, let's just start small instead of looking, being like, why don't we get women's vasters out of gutsa? Like I don't really see, why don't we get women's vasters out of Gutsa? I don't really see it.

I just let them have their thing to leave them alone. Like, it's masters is a sacred week for a lot of people. But I don't think I can demand it to be a sacred week for us as well, and just to ride off of what they have. And it's not our history. So I think we can create our own history with our own champions. And I think that's important. And I that's how I see it. But that makes that makes a lot of sense. That really does make sense. All right. Well, we're going to let you

go. We are kicking off this week with the the Chevron Championship a a a great run of really good golf. You guys are about to play with that. We have the KPMG women's PGA ball to straw. Of course, we have Pebble Beach. We to play with that. We have the KPMG Women's PGA, both to Stroll. Of course, we have Pebble Beach, we have the international crown. We have the AG Women's Open at Walden Heath. We have the AVEON. It is gonna be coming fast and hard here very quickly. And then Soulheim comes to play.

Big year. Huge year. It's gonna be fantastic. So best of luck with that. Hope we get to catch up down the road. And thanks for spending some time with us. Thank you so much. Good right club.

Be the right club today. Yes! Yes! That is better than most. How about in? That is better than most. Better than most. I

Expect anything different