No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - NLU Podcast, Episode 83: Jason Dufner

Episode Date: May 31, 2017

2013 PGA Champion Jason Dufner joins the No Laying Up podcast to talk about where he’s at in his career, some misconceptions about himself, Tiger, swing thoughts, and his comfort level between the ropes. Listeners... The post NLU Podcast, Episode 83: Jason Dufner appeared first on No Laying Up. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's Memorial Tournament Week, one of my favorite weeks of the year. The field is fantastic and as expected the PJ Tour live pairings are off the charts. Kevin Kisner, Jordan Speeth, Justin Thomas, Dustin Johnson, William McGurth, and Phil Mickelson on Thursday. Ricky Fowler, Hadecki Matsuyama, John Rom, C. Wu Kim, Jason Day, and Adam Scott on Friday. Log on to PJ Tour.com and sign up for PJ Tour Live now. A reminder, there's still time for our US and Canadian listeners to log on to CallawayGolf.com slash Epic Scotland to register for our giveaway roundtrip flight to Scotland, some of the most

incredible golf in the world in a spot in the Scottish Open program with a leading Callaway player log on and register today. Be the right club today. That is better than most. Better than most. All right, ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the No-Lang podcast. I'm Chris Solomon, joined with me today here at the Memorial Tournament, Jason Duffner, four-time PGA Tour winner, winner of the 2013 PGA Championship.

What's going on, Duff? How are we all? Not much, thanks for having me. Yeah. Is this podcast for Gen Duff? How are we going? Not much. Not much. Thanks for having me. Yeah. Is this podcast for Gen.D. Have you ever done a podcast? Yeah, this is the first one. So you're popping my podcast chair. Do you rate what I said? I'm not sure if you're aware of what you've locked yourself into.

But I want to talk a bit about golf to begin with. Mirafield Memorial Tournament is an event that I hold very dear to my heart. I grew up going to this tournament. I asked when I was a kid, I never really fully understood how good of a golf course it was and how good of a tournament it was because it was the only one I knew. For you as a PGA Tour stop, where does this course rate as far as like conditioning of a course you play? Yeah, I mean, this one's up there.

You know, there's a lot of things they do right with this event here in Columbus. Mr. Nicholas has been around a lot of events and he might not tell you that, but I think he kind of mirrors it a little bit after the masters over there in Augusta. So it kind of has that feel. They treat us real nice here, the locker rooms great. The golf course is great. The condition of the golf course is always spectacular. Occasionally we have some weather issues, but I can't control that.

But it's one of my, you know, higher up there on the list tournaments. No milkshake mentioned. Yeah, the milkshakes are good, but I'm not a big dairy guy. The milkshakes tear me up a little bit. I might have you get me one then. So, but it's a fun week, you know, I'm from Cleveland originally, so try to come back and play in Ohio. And I haven't had the best results here.

I've had a couple good finishes, but it's definitely one you look forward to. That's what I was going to ask next. Is this type of place fit your style at play? Is it a course that you maybe wouldn't prefer just based on your style of play? Yeah, I think I've had some good finishes. One year I was leading I think after 36. It's a little bit big for me.

I'd prefer to see a little bit tighter off the C. Yeah, it takes away your advantage. Yeah, a little bit with that. Distance can be a factor on the this golf course guys going into these smaller targets The greens in general are big, but where we're trying to hit it is pretty tight and narrowing some spots So me trying to fit seven and eight irons into the some of those spots can be a little bit more difficult than some of the guys with the nine irons and the wedges But I enjoy the challenge. It's a tough golf course. Hopefully this win that we had today will go away because that makes it even more difficult.

But, you know, it's a good week. I like playing good field, which I kind of look at too. Love playing against the best in the world. And we got the best in the world here this week. When you say you look for a good field, does that matter to you like from a official World Golf rankings point,

or just more from a competitive nature statement? Just a competitive nature. You know, I want to play against the best in the world and see where I stack up. Those events to me are the ones that mean the most. And most of the time that's the major is World Golf events. But there's a handful of PGA tour events, maybe five to 10 where we get eight, nine,

10 guys that are top 10 in the world or you get 40 or 45 of the top 50 in the world that are playing that week. That kind of shows where you're at. This is the best of the best. I like to think that every week on the PGA Tour, the winner of that event was the best in the world that week because we're playing on the best tour. So when you have those types of fields and those types of players, you play well and maybe you sneak a win out,

you feel pretty good about where you're at. I find your career progression to be pretty fascinating. And overall, I want to know, what's your confidence level like when you show up at a tournament in 2017 compared to, like, say 2015, which was not a great year for you, and compared to 2013, which was a great year for you 2011 was kind of when you were evolving and coming into the you know the player that you've been for the past six six or seven years What what what is your confidence rank now compared to some of your worst times and some of your best times?

Yeah, I think now I'm in a pretty good spot. I've had a pretty good year last year This year's been pretty good. I made a lot lot of cuts. I had a lot of top 25s, been close, but it kind of goes back to the progression of my career. It was a little bit different than a lot of the guys that people are focusing on now on the tour. Seems like now you're seeing a lot of young guys with a lot of success early and I didn't have that. Took me a long time to get on the PGA tour and stay out here. It took me a long time to win. But it all kind of came quick there in 11, 12, 13.

And it was a weird situation for me because when I look back on it, I kind of had accomplished everything that I wanted to accomplish in a two year period. It took me a long time to get there. But after the win of the PGA and all that dies down I'm just kind of standing there sitting there thinking, well, what's next? What's next? Because I've done everything I wanted to do in this game and that was an adjustment for me and

Probably wasn't as motivated as I had been in the past Because I accomplished everything. It's like you know Not many people get to accomplish everything they want to do in their career at 35. I would imagine like, for weird position to be. I know. And especially, and I want to know, like, for how long it took you to break through, did your own in your head what you thought of your ceiling ever fall to the point where what you did actually exceeded, what you thought thought of your ceiling ever fall to the point where what you did actually exceeded what you thought you were maybe capable of three years before you won the P.C. No, I don't think that. It's just, you know, I had to figure out new ways to get motivated. Yeah.

I had to figure out what's my purpose for doing this because it was always to play the PGA tour, to win on the PGA tour, to win a major. No, son, I did it. I never had these thoughts of I want to win 10 tournaments. I want to win every major. It never got to that point with me. I had already accomplished these things. So I had to find out new ways to get motivated. I had to find out new ways to push myself. And any last year was nice. I was able to win again. So that was one of the things. I kind of checked off the box. I made it back to the tour championship. But now like I kind of play out of the position of pride and not so much like that I want to be better than these guys or I'm proud because I'm the fourth best golfer in the world or whatever it might be just from the standpoint of I had a lot

of pride in what I do. This is what I'm doing right now with my life. So I want to, you know, be successful. And that's my motivation now is to have pride in what I do when I'm on tour, work hard, practice hard, do the things I need to do to play well and have pride in that. And that's kind of where I'm at. I still have some things I think I can accomplish in the game. I'm getting a little bit older. The game seems to be getting younger and younger. It seems like a young man's game at time, but I still think I can win out here. I still think I can be competitive in majors. And I also think I can still make some money doing it. And that's not all that bad. You know success is a little bit different for everybody out here.

Everybody has this model in their head that well this is what a successful PGA tourist player should be and do and how they should act and all these different things but it's different for a lot of guys out here. A lot of us are very fortunate to do this for living and some guys being successful is making you know a million or a million half bucks and finishing 80th on the money list and that's okay. And to some guys success is winning multiple times and being top 10 in the world. So those things have changed and I'm okay with it. You know, I'm still doing this.

I don't know how long I want to do this for. I'm not a golf junkie. No. Not a golf nut. Not a golf nut. All right. Now, I enjoy the game. I enjoy the profession.

You don't crave it. Like if you're not in the course, you're not craving it. It's not uncommon for me to take a week off and not touch a golf club. Yeah, I mean, that's, you're awareness of that is important, I think, because a lot of players, professional enameters get burnt out, thinking they need to be at the course all the time,

but if you're aware that you know, you need to put the clubs away for a week, I think that. Yeah, and sometimes it helps me. Yeah, I think it helps me more than it hurts me. Here recently I think it's hurt me. I played pretty good there through New Orleans to complete week off and felt flat on my face and to play a hard part.

That's funny because I was going to ask you, I was going to say if I asked you how many cuts have you missed in the last year? And when I wrote the question, the question's different because you missed the cut last week. Could you tell, like how close did you follow that? Could you tell me how many cuts you've missed in the last year? And when I wrote the question, the question's different, because you missed the cut last week. Could you tell me how close to do follow that? Could you tell me how many cuts you've missed in the last? Yeah, I know when I make cuts, and I make cuts.

12 months. Because yeah, you had missed one in the last year before that. That's part of being a professional, is being out here making money. So to me, the hardest thing for me is a professional golfer is missing cuts. And I love to compete. I love to try and win tournaments.

But I know if I'm not playing on Saturday and Sunday, I'm not getting paid and that's not any fun. That's the polar opposite answer I got from Matt Everey. He was like, if I'm not winning, I don't care. I don't care if I'm missing cuts. So that's an interesting perspective. I'm sure you get this a bit, but you have a reputation as being a bit of an emotionless

player or the appearance on television or whatnot can seem like you're never nervous, you're never too overly excited. Is that a facade? Is that a true reflection of how you play the game or is this something you intentionally do to the zone? No, I think that's just how I am. I'm that way with everything in life. People think I don't have much emotion. I'm kind of just out

there flat lining. But part of the thing is like when I'm on the tour and playing tournaments, like playing tournament golf is tough for me. It's hard. It's not easy physically, mentally, and I feel like for me to have my best chance, that's where I need to be. I need to be focused and locked in and I don't want to get so high and so low and have all these emotions. And some guys can do it. And that's what's different about everybody on the PGA tour. For me, it's just to be kind of chill and relaxed.

And I know at times it looks like I don't care. Or I'm not excited or disappointed. But being out here playing is difficult for me it's hard on a mental side it's hard on emotional side. You just mean from the crowds or just a challenge or the pressure all of it together. Yeah it's not easy for me. Some guys say it's easy it's fun I enjoy it but for me playing professional golf is hard I have to work hard at it I have to be on top of my things physically. I have to be on top of the thoughts

that I'm having mentally. My mind tends to drift and float, whether it be good things or bad things or what I'm gonna do next week. I mean, Cascade. Yeah, I mean, that's part of the reason why I walk so slow is because if I get up to the ball and I got away there for five minutes. It's not good

I'm gonna think about 12 different shots that I can hit in that situation because You know we can hit all kinds of different shots and then who knows if I'll pick the right one Right, you know, everybody's like why does it take you so long to get to the ball? Why you want like I'm trying to pace myself So that by the time I get there I'll have one thought and go with it. I have a lot of different thoughts and sometimes it's hard for me to really focus on what I'm doing, you know. So it's hard for me and I think that plays out in this exterior facade that people see and they think it's all these things but that's just how I kind of deal with the stress. Yeah.

I'm a way of seeing it, like, Ryder Cup. And I think when you wanted Byron Nelson, we saw like some real emotion come out of you. I'm not a real big piss punk guy. No, but you've laid out a couple big ones, man. The Ryder Cup, I forget what hole it was on. You made a big putt of Medina that let one out. We hadn't seen from you. But are you, so take me back to, like, I don't know about today,

or when you show up for a practice round, for practice rounds, are you a money game guy? Do you play Tuesday money games? Is that something that kind of gets you in the zone for the week? It's a mixed bag. It just depends on how much I've been playing, how many tournaments I've had in a row,

usually around the majors and the big ones, there's usually a little bit of a group action. I like to try and stay competitive during the week. I think that's one of the most important things. I think there's a time and place for practice and work and the mechanical side of the game, but I also think there's a time and place for being competitive. So I have a couple groups of guys will get in there and mix it up. Are you the same demeanor in those in those rounds as you are? I like to talk. Yeah, I like to talk a little bit. Yeaher yeah yeah I grew up playing basketball on Washington DC

so I like to throw the smack a little bit do you ever play with Phil a little bit I used to it's just a trash talking do yeah I can't respect him too much it's kind of like the answer that is that's what you win yeah are you up or down money in money games? I'm the king on Tuesday. You're the king? Number one in the world on Tuesdays. No one would argue that?

There's been a couple guys that beat me, but I've done pretty well on Tuesdays. Usually, like, four man games, two verse two, or is it, yeah. Me and Justin Thomas are undefeated. How many is that? I don't know. Two and a half.

Two and a half. All right, so if we see you out with three other people doing a prexion, there's something on the line. More than likely. More than likely. How does that get settled at the end of the round? Is it cashed? A Venmo? Always cashed.

And what if somebody doesn't have enough cash on hand? Then they get it to you. Whenever they get it to you. Is there an interest in all of that? No. We're never paying that. You probably don't mind letting that hang over somebody's head. Yeah, you want to hang so you can hold it over a little bit.

Yeah. But it's just enough that it hurts, but not enough that it hurts. Right. It's more for probably the trash talking angle. And you can tell people that you beat them and remind them. Correct. So the clubs go in the trunk. How different are you off the course?

I mean, everyone can tell if I was in social media, you're a huge sports fan, Auburn fan, Browns, Caves. How different, how talkative are you compared to, like what we see, maybe on television? It seems different to me as well. Yeah, it depends on where I'm at in our relationship. If I know you pretty well, then we're going to be pretty good. I'll bust on you some and we'll have good conversations and I'll be a good loyal friend

and all those things. If I don't know you well, I'm pretty quiet. It depends on the group. When I get to know people, it's easier for me to open up and be a little more trusting. You keep a pretty tight circle then? Yeah, pretty tight circle. I mean, a lot of my friends that I have, a lot of them are golf related, a lot of them are from college and many tours and stuff like that.

So it's a pretty tight circle. Have a lot of casual friends as I like to call them. The French friends. Seems like more guys on the PGA tour have casual friends. They're real friends nowadays, to be honest with you. Do you, did your lifestyle change a lot from the 2010, 2011 era when you just moved into a completely different tax bracket? Did you draw off the course lifestyle change at all?

A little bit, yeah. A little bit, I think that. Understandably. I mean, it would. It happened. I mean, people like nice things and when you can start a four-night thing. Yeah, they're, they're, they're, you're a judgment in that question. I would be disappointed if the answer wasn't. I'd be one of those, I'm not gonna change. I'm gonna get in the, yeah. Change it a little bit.

Change is a little bit, but a lot of it's making your life easier out here on the PGA tour. Yeah. Flying private obviously makes your life a life easier out here on the PGA tour. Flying private obviously makes your life a lot easier out here, staying in nicer hotels, I think it all helps. Yeah, just from an overall, it's hard once you get to there, too, to go backwards, too. Yeah, not too bad, but yeah. I think it helps a little bit when you play, too. Yeah. You feel better about yourself a little bit. It's a bit comfort. You know, you're spending a little bit more money, so maybe you need to make a little bit more money. A quick break to remind you guys that Calloway has been the fastest growing major golf ball

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Do you, so I ask every player this question, and a guy on for our site, Big Randy, did this piece called the Tiger Tax, where he went in and analyzed how much money Tiger has put in the pockets of other players over the course of their career. So he estimated his impact to be around $1.2 billion for other players. So if I was to ask you, you've been about 22 million on course earnings in your career. How much, if you were, if Tiger were to invoice you a tax to say you owe me this much How much would that be do you think? Probably half

The answer typically I am paying him I like the government he got plenty of money. I find it fascinating just to hear guys talk about their appreciation for what he's done And even somebody like Phil that he's benefited great financially from, but from a competitive standpoint, Phil would have been the best player of the generation probably if it weren't for Tiger. But I mean, is there a general sense in, do you feel like things are changing out on the tour from four or five years ago and he was at least a factor. Well, I think you know it's surprising to me Especially in the last couple years with Tiger about you know his health and his state of his game and all this stuff and all this

Negativity that comes out about him. It's pretty surprising to me players media all these people that say these negative things and how much this guy's done for these people all these people that say these negative things and how much this guy's done for these people. It's like they forget, like, without this dude, we're still playing for a million and a half or two million dollars in an event. There's no world golf events. There's no eight million dollar per se this week without him. He moves the needle. I mean, you can even see that with what happened this week. Yeah.

moves the needle like people freak out right. So for him to kind of play during my generation, extremely fortunate right. But I also think now you're starting to see a little different shift and you're seeing these young guys and there's so many of them that are so good right. I think it's great for the game because it gives people an opportunity to root for it before it was like either like Tiger or you didn't like Tiger. And that's the only golf perspective you had, right? Nobody talked about Ernie Alice, even though he was amazing. Nobody really talked about Phil, even though he was amazing. Everything revolved around Tiger, right? And you that liked him or you hated him.

And even if you hated him, it wouldn't mean you were a fill fan, you just want to Tiger to play bad, right? You're still tuned in though when he's playing well too, even if you dislike him. So now you have all these young guys and some 30-ish guys and it gives the fans a different perspective. They can pick who they like to root for, who they want to see. You see events like last week with which on Ram and Jordan Speeth and throwing a Kevin Kisner. Now you got a really exciting event with a lot of different people. And I think it brings more to the table, makes it tougher to win.

It's more golf fans, you know. Tiger brought a different group of people to the game. And it was kind of sometimes harder to talk golf or relate to golf. You know, bigger crowds come out and it's a it's a whole circus when he's out there. And then you get more golf specific fans, which is good or bad. But you know, I think Tiger brought a lot of people to the game and interest, but I don't know how many of those people like stayed. Right. Yeah. A lot of them invested in in the game. They proudly say I watch when Tigers had that. Yeah, he was interesting to watch and interesting to either root for or root against.

But I like the way the game is now. I think there's things we could do to make the game easier to play. Rules, perspectives, rules wise. I just think like nine whole courses. Like I do. I mean non-P tour golf. Yeah, okay, you know make it more affordable It's a it's a expensive game. Yeah, nine whole golf courses Executive golf courses putting courses even it gives us people opportunity to oh I played this putting course

I want to you know get more involved. I think PGA tour players the PGA tour USGA all these entities of golf Really can do a better job figuring out how to get more people involved. Yeah How did you grow up playing the game? What was your nine whole golf course? I know go public golf courses public in Cleveland My grandparents were members of a private club. I'd go there every once in a while But I mean I grew up going to the driving range that you see in Tinkup that barely has any grass and hitting strippers and playing I remember there's a public executive course I think it had like three par fours

and six par threes and I'd play that like two or three times a week with my dad and then as I got better I could go play nine holes on a regular golf course But that's how I grew up is playing public golf courses and Cleveland Planing jeans and a t-shirt. Yeah, I played money great and money games growing up as a kid coming up No, not then money and getting into that so I needed money When when was that? College, you know college a little bit in high school, but mostly in college. Who would you play money games with?

There's ever was a round that had money. Yeah, I guess you couldn't be with pocket. I would imagine your your steely demeanor would help you in that regard. It wouldn't look at you and say they find out. That's so I got it. You see a couple of strippers in there. Yeah. So you're always talking about Auburn football. What kind of connection do you have

with some of the athletes there? And maybe in your age group older than you younger than you, do you have relationships with some of those players? Yeah, a little bit. That's the cool thing about Auburn is it really feels like family to me. If you're even if you're not in the athletics, if you didn't play athletics there, you didn't play professional sports, everybody's really close knit, really tight. Some pretty close with Charles Barkley and Bo Jackson, and Frank Thomas a little bit and Cam Newton a little bit.

Me living there obviously helps. So close. You know, the thing about golf is like, I'm always an Auburn golfer. I'm always going to be tied to Auburn. It's not like I play football there. And with Cam everybody's like, oh, he's Carolina Panther. Right. Yeah.

I don't lose that connection. That rocks sheet, right? So everybody knows that I played at Auburn, that I'm part of Auburn family. So it's pretty good. We got some good athletes that have gone through there, some really good athletes. We got some guys on the PJ tour now. We've done pretty good with the golf program. We got I think three other guys out here now that we're all after me. So I'd like to think I'm helping the program with that. It's fun. I love living in Auburn.

I love being part of the university. Obviously Auburn football is fantastic because I'm a big college football fan and Gus is a golf fan. So it works out. A relationship there. Do you, are you able to stomach playing with Barkley? I haven't played with him. He would play with me. No, he's embarrassed to play or you don't want to play with him. He's embarrassed. He doesn't play much. A couple of times a year.

I can tell. Usually's embarrassed. He doesn't play much. A couple of times a year. Like a time. Usually charity events. Yeah. What kind of relationship do you have with him? Do you go out with him? Precasual football games. We chat on text if I'm doing well in tournaments.

He's in an encouragement. I'm always making fun of him about his telecasts and stuff he does. So see each other a couple of times a year. Try to go basketball tournament, G.A., basketball tournament, CM, do a football game or two, it's pretty casual. Everyone's got a good Barclay story, you gotta have some in your arsenal. Yeah, Charles is, you know, he's the opposite of me. Yeah. You know, he wants everybody to

know that he's in wherever we're at. So, usually in Auburn, small town, right? People don't get to see him that much. We'll go out and he's so friendly. That's one thing I learned from him who's being more friendly with people that come up because he's so generous with his time. But it's like he can handle it. Yeah, but it's so different. Like, some people can handle that. Some people can't. You've seen it, you know, like Palmer and Trevino and these guys, they love that, right? They love that attention. They like all that interaction, you know?

And then you see other guys that just aren't as great with it. Yeah. Unfortunately, I've found that. You've had it. Don't feel like you're great with it. No, I could be better. But it's how your personality goes. If you don't like attention, then you're not going to like the fame that comes with, I mean, that's just part of it. Well, it could be better, but it's how your personality goes. If you don't like attention, then you're not going to like the fame that comes with me. That's just part of it.

That's why me and Ricky get along so well. He's great with it and practice rounds and I just can he deals with it and you just go right on around the other way. Do you feel like the attention and focus on you is different like in 2017 than it was in 2013 or like just from a 2017 that it wasn't 2013 like just from a Just the same amount of war eagles and yells out there. I never have too much negativity out there Which I'm kind of fortunate when I when I play with other guys play with Polter Play with Polter a couple weeks ago right after the players in Dallas and First hole he hit a wedge about 30 feet and guys like way to play it safe

in, you know, just bustin' them on the first hole. You know, I never, I never get that. Obviously you get the guys here and there when you hit a bad shot, the heckle you a little bit. Where do you stand with heckling, like something like that for Polter, you think that's part of the game or that's tough. I mean, I know that people think they buy a ticket and that gives them a right. But as a huge sports fan myself,

I've never been to a sporting event and felt compelled to yell or scream at an athlete. I don't know if it's positive or negative. Right, it's definitely for the attention. You know, they do it for their friends or standing. For me, I'm there to watch the show. Right. And sometimes I like the show

and sometimes I don't like the show. Yeah. Golf having is different than basketball. You know, I think I do think it's part of the deal with basketball. You go to an opposing arena. Like it's a away game. Expect a little bit of back and forth with some fans. Golf, it's not every events are right or cut. Right. When you know, when when European players get heck hold or whatnot, I don't I'm not a impolite or guy. Don't get me wrong. But I don't I don't like him or whatnot. I'm not an impulter guy, don't get me wrong, but I don't like him getting harass. I don't think that's- I mean, I see it from good guy.

I mean, Ricky's a great kid. Jordan's a great kid, and they get hammered all the time. Whether it be on the course or social media or whatever. They get drilled pretty good. And I'm kind of lucky, most people like me. Every time I raise it, it might be that that's teally demeanor. I feel like you were you used to be really involved with social media and you've dialed it back a little bit. Is that accurate? Yeah, it's kind of a little too much I think.

I'm tired of it. I had an Instagram for a while and I just got rid of it. I'm like, why am I posting pictures? Like, who cares about this stuff? Right? And then the, I mean, I can sit there and tweet about a lot of things and it's just so weird what people think is important and not important to me. Right? You know, I'll tweet something about my foundation and what we're doing and I'll get two responses and 50 likes. And then I'll tweet something stupid that doesn't mean anything and it goes crazy. So it just became like, okay, I get the use of social media.

I think it's important in some ways, but it's just not something that I wanna be engaging with all the time. Like I find myself getting in fights with like 16 year olds. I'm like, what am I doing? It seems like no matter what you say, there's gonna be people that misinterpretate or take it a wrong way or jump like five steps ahead

and say, also you think this. And then you feel like you have to respond to them. Yeah, defend yourself all the time. And like, no, that's not what I meant. I'm not trying to defend myself all the time. I'm human like everybody else. I make mistakes, I do things that some people are gonna like, some people don't like, but I just don't feel like

I ever do anything where I need to defend myself. And I find myself doing that on Twitter. Yeah, it's easy to get so good. And it's a distraction if I, you know, you're out to doing it with your friends or your girl or whatever and all of a sudden you're on your phone and like, I'm not 25, I'm not a millennial. I don't need to be on my phone all the time.

But that's how the world is today with media and how it's pushed and what people think is important and not important. So what do you think about the way golf media, golf is covered from a media perspective just overall? Yeah, I think it could be better, but I'm honest with you. I think, and it's not really the journalists and the media's fault, it's what the people want, right? So what sells?

What is pushed? People, people, people posting, why is it girlfriend post because people click on it. Exactly, so like it turns in, I mean mean that's another thing that I got off social media it's like anytime I post something it's like all these outlets grab it and then throw it and then show it like it's there aggregation I hate it it gets like I can't do anything without you know people stealing it so and I think it's not just golf media it's media in general you look a lot around the world and like I'm not the biggest Trump fan but when he says fake news like that's a real thing like it happens

all the time like more than half the stuff that the media has put out there about me is incorrect it It's not true. No, I'm reaching out for you for a comment or anything to verify it. Like there's no verification. Look what happened yesterday. Yeah. Yeah. You know, guy gets rung up. Everybody starts right in there at a TORAL. Yeah. It's all editorial. It's all opinion-based. And there's some guys out here I think that do a good job. They try to, you know, some guys out here I think that do a good job they try to you know be a journalist but the whole just editorial like opinion and then what happens is they push it like it's

fact. Right. Right. So then Joe Blow Golf fan reads it and goes well this guy said it so it must be true so then they think it's true like everybody thinks I'm a huge drinker, or that I don't care about things, or that I just, there's all these misconceptions about me. And nobody's ever talked to me about it.

No, when you mean that, right? No, it's just like, what's the biggest misconception then one of those issues is named, or... Yeah, the drinking part. Like, I literally don't drink alcohol. Not at all Maybe two or three times a year and usually I've probably had what is it June who outage or who who was claiming that you were a drinker I don't know

Yeah social media and perception and Whatever like like I'm like, you know I walk on Saturdays. They're like what what are Saturdays for? I'm like, I don't know what you're talking about walk on Saturdays, they're like, what are Saturdays for? I'm like, I don't know what you're talking about. Like, you know, let's go crush some beers after the round. Like, no dude, I don't crush beers. Like, I don't know what you're talking about. I mean, it's June and I've probably had maybe five beers and 10 glasses of wine. I don't know if it's the dip or I don't know what what the nation think that but You know and like just the whole like I don't care and I'm flatlined and all this stuff like Nobody's ever asked me what I'm thinking right off course, you know what I mean? Yeah, and it's just all pushed and then okay, well, this is how Jason is well

What would so what of all those what is the thing that you would want? Clarified the most or to return to round the most, you know, is it the Is it the the flatline thing or Flatline thing it doesn't bother me because I think it's a good thing on the go for it is for you That's what you found the works for you people come off or it comes off as like I'm a Louvre Or that I'm not intelligent. Yeah, I'm not intelligent or that I'm some country dummy from Alabama right and that's just not the case like I study a lot of things about the game I love reading I'm always trying to improve myself you sound like a golf nut you said you're not a golf nut it's your

profession yeah but I'm trying to do things to be good at it to be successful right you know I read a lot of to do things to be good at. It's gonna be successful, right? You know, I read a lot of different things, how to be better professionally, but also how to be better person, personally, how to relate with people better, how to handle what I talk about with me, being uncomfortable with fans.

You know, and I read a lot of stuff, and I feel like I'm fairly more intelligent than I'm portrayed. What kind of stuff do you read? I read a lot of news, I read a lot of science stuff, physics stuff, I read a lot of psychology stuff, I probably read a book a week on month, at least two a month. Just on the planes or wherever you're at. I mean, I'm always on my phone reading information, anything I can find that makes life interesting, to be honest with you. What's something, what would you say is something

you're most proud of in your career so far? Probably my foundation. Foundation? What is, for the people that don't know about your foundation, what's up? So I have a foundation in Alabama. We feed about 1200 kids every weekend and then another 900 during the summer.

So for me to use the platform, what I've done in golf and give back, make a difference in people's lives that I see when I'm at home, that this is making a difference, that's what I'm most proud of. All the golf stuff's nice and it's dreams that I'm getting to live out and that's great. But if you took all that away from me,

if it took everything away from me, the foundation would be the hardest thing for me to come. Wow, okay, very nice. Did you feel like the Duff-nerring thing got a little overblond? Did that get past funny and to a no-ing team? That's right. Move on, people. Move on with life. thing got a little overbonded that get get get past funny into anointing move on this looks like a day I mean we could take pictures of people doing stuff all the time you know they probably went on too far I got me a little bit of notoriety

yeah I got you know I was really not notoriety you want. I mean, there's that good at- I go to golf tournaments and there's like 50-year-old guys. Stuff-nerying. Stuff-nerying, and like, what do you want me to do? Like, okay, cool. Hey, cool. Like, you're 50, get off the ground. It's the cry for attention that we were talking about. Yeah.

How did your friendship with Kegan Bradley come about? Because I- if I remember right like in 2011 you guys were in the playoff of the PGA you weren't necessarily friends at that point. Is that right? Yeah, I think just through golf, you know, after him winning, I won some events the next year so we got paired together so we played a little bit together and I'd always give him, you know, a little bit of grief about him beating me and how he shouldn't have won. All that stuff that happened on the last couple holds, so damn lucky.

I'm always needling people like that. It still gets to you, I can tell. Yeah, I mean, I put shit of going in the water. But anyways, you know, and from there, just grew and Playing together you become friends. I mean a lot of my good friends Are out here because of all Frank so Then we play on rider cup teams and presidents cup teams and he start working with my coach. So I got to know him through that What is the rider cup?

Was it is a transformative of an experience as a lot of players say it is for you? Was it? Like you mentioned earlier, it's a different type of emotion. You know at the time I thought it was. And I don't want people to take this wrong because it's a tremendous experience. It's unbelievable from the standpoint of you get to be part of a team, which we never get to do. Right? So being part of that team and one of the 12 bests in the country to represent the United

States, amazing experience even though we lost. And I thought it meant so much to be on that team and I wanted to be on the team again, and now two rider cups have gone by and I haven't been part of them but I didn't really miss it. You know what I mean? I think it's a great experience. I think being part of the team is awesome. I think winning or losing is an awesome experience. It has a professional but personally for me when I missed it I was like oh well I'm not

part of the team. It's hard to be part of. Hopefully guys do well. Yeah, you know, you weren't emotionally invested in the team success. I didn't even watch. No. The one that was in Europe, I was on vacation. And then last year, I mean, I think I watched Sunday a little bit, but I don't watch a lot of golf either. Not a golf nut. I mean, everything I do for me that relates to golf is so that I can be as good as I can be and be professional. What's a shot that you, a mulligan that you'd love to have on one shot you've had in your career, one that sticks out the most? That's a good question. No, he's ever asked me that question before. Take me a minute to think about it.

It's probably my second shot at the PGA in 11 on 16. Yeah. You make double. I made Bogey. Or Bogey on that. It was a long par for The pin was in a good spot and I felt like five iron Was going to be too much club, but I still hit it and I kind of kind of whifted a little bit lost to the right couldn't and that was the stroke

I needed you know 17 a three-potted, but I didn't feel bad about that because I did the best I could the situation was extreme but I felt like I could have done better I probably should hit a six iron and might have made a par and then had a little bit more cushion coming in but there's a lot of mud against we want yeah just always curious it's funny too because you think about it and you wonder if you'd won the PGA in 2011. Your career plays out differently. Things do you win in 2013? Obviously, it's a total hypothetical question.

And I'll be honest, a lot of the tournaments that I've won or I've been close to winning, I feel like I've performed really well. It's just somebody else's beat. I mean, that PGA is the only one that I can think of that I was like man I wish I would have done something different you know. I've almost won the colonial twice but both times Zach and Adam Scott are quite amazing. I lost Mark Wilson in the playoffs at Phoenix he made a 30 footer in the playoff hole.

Do you think too much emphasis is put on winning and how, you know, if you don't come through with the very end and let's say, birdie, the 72nd hole and you finish in second, that's almost seen as, so I feel like sometimes that gets more attention than somebody who finished tenth. And do you feel like there's too much emphasis on winning on the tour? I don't know if there's too much attention because that's what we're trying to do. But I don't think people really have a full grasp of what separates winning and even finishing 15.

Yeah. Right? Like, that's what it's it to you. What is the difference? I mean, it's minimal. Yeah, it's the spring is so small. It's literally splitting hairs. In my opinion, when I play, I feel like if I'm within

six shots of the lead, I had a pretty good week. You know, I'm doing a lot of things really well. Six shots is one and a half shots around. That's, you know, I could have hit it on the green instead of being in the bunker and made par and made this poor footer. And, you know, all these little things add up. And that's a small margin. So, and it's so competitive out here. I mean, there's a hundred guys every week,

and there's a hundred guys in this field this week, maybe 115 with this field, that legitimately could win on Sunday. Right. I mean, so that's why I feel, if you're a PGA Tour fan, pick a guy to follow and really follow the results week to week because it feels like Matt Kutcher's

in the top 10 every week and he's not. Like some weekends, he misses the cut, some weekends, you miss the cut and to really follow one guy to see what, you know, if you're not in the top 10 on the leaderboard, you might not be in the viewers' thoughts for that day, but you don't realize how many times you fell outside the top 25 to make you appreciate

those top 10s. Yeah, the margins are tied out here and it's hard you know how many multiple winners were there last year five or six yeah yeah yeah not that many guys are doing one of them is speed and people were saying that was a bad year and you want to see and Dustin and Jason Day and the guys that win two three or sometimes four times they're usually like top players in the world Just how it goes like it's hard out here like people can't comprehend like I'm trying to be the best in the world It what I do not just like the best in my city or my state or my region or that's why when you finish fifth It's not a bad thing at all. This is like, I was the fifth best player in the world.

In the world. In the whole world. Yeah. I mean, no disrespect to the other tours, but this is the best tour in all. Of course, yeah. And sometimes the fields in Europe are very strong. Yeah.

But most of the time, if you're playing the PJ tour, wherever you finish in that event, that's how good you were in the world that week. And that's hard for people to wrap their head around. Well, my point of the question was I feel like there's too much attitude just maybe a golf fan of win or bust. And it doesn't matter what you finished if you don't win. I get it.

Guys get a knock for only having a certain amount of wins. I get it, but only one guy can win. That's what's amazing. And second face pretty good. A few more and I'll let you get out of here. But on the opposite of the. I get it, but only one guy can win. That's what's amazing. And second face pretty good. A few more, and I'll let you get out of here. But on the opposite of the mulligan shot, what's a highlight or shot that you would want people to remember you buy? Like, if there was like a plaque that just had one shot on replay that you had to pick from your career. Probably the one last year at the career

builder. There is a plaque. Oh, for the chip on the... Out of the rocks. Almost all of it. Right place, right time, right situation. Doesn't happen very often for us, but it did for me. I always remember that kind of getting back on the map with some wins. Did that win? And I know it's probably hard to differentiate your wins but that getting back to the winner circle two and a half years probably since you had won. Did that one mean more than maybe some of your wins coming up?

Yeah definitely. You know to me the first the first win was the hardest. Right. Took the longest right and I would put the one last year right up there with the PGA. Just because I didn't know where my career was going right a couple down years. I wasn't really motivated wasn't really engaged To be playing golf for a couple years there and you know, there's always thoughts in your mind. Is this it?

Right this how it's gonna end Do I have it in me to do this anymore? And it was nice to put in some hard work for for six months or so and then get back in the winter circle. Great. What's a standard swing thought you have standing over the ball right now? And does that change from week to week? Or what are you what are you thinking right now when you're about to hit a shot? Um, standard is keeping my left elbow tight. Left elbow tight. Um, on my downswing.

Impact. Mostly from hip to hip. Try to. You do the towel. I've seen you do the towel drill a lot. Yeah, towel drill. So they are. Even keeping my left elbow tight ensures that the handle of the club is tight and not into how would be the proper golf technology

Right now I'm working on staying centered in my backswing for some reason In Dallas and Clowny all gotten a real bad habit of drifting in my backswing So my head would actually move towards my right foot. So right now. I'm trying to keep my health my head actually move towards my right foot. So right now I'm trying to keep my head centered, almost stack and tilt-ish. I don't really wanna say I'm a stack and tilt guy. You wanna admit to that. But for me, when we look at video,

me swinging my best and playing my best, I kinda stay centered. You can tell, I mean, that's what I was wondering about you guys because to us, all of your swings look the same. You can tell by watching video, just the smallest little change. So I've got four or five videos from 12 and 13.

Saved on your phone that you keep close. Yeah, that is kind of the model. Yeah. Right. And when things go awry, take video and compare. And last week Dallas, I played good, I finished good, but I didn't hear the well and then last week really caught up with me So went home and got on the computer and loaded those up and saw a big difference. My head was moving four or five inches

You know, and that goes back to split in hairs. Yeah four or five inches is huge for us. Usually it's you know one or two inches Yeah, that's a lot so right now trying to stay centered, but Always trying to keep that left elbow, that left arm connected and tight. What's the worst shot you've ever hit? Who have had lost shanks out there? You got some shanks? Yeah, they got televised.

No. I can't remember any. That was back when I was playing back. You weren't on TV yet. I think one year I played the WebDoc. It used to be, I think it was the bi.com when I played it. But we were playing Greenville, the celebrity event. My birdie, five of the first six holes to tie for the lead, and shanked it right into

the guy's house. And told him, well, that's the end of that. And the toughest shot in golf is the shot after you check. Cause you have no idea what's gonna happen. And so yeah, I've had some shanks that have been pretty bad. I had a couple fat shots. I've hit some fat shots that just lay the sod over it. And you're just, it happened.

You don't even know where it came from. Nope, no, even to the best. All right last one if there's anything What would you what would you change about the PGA tour if you could or it could be at any level or what's something that it can be You know band white belts. It can be Anything all the the top I would say as a whole PGA tour is is really really good And this won't be favorable to a lot of people, but I think the 125 number is way too high for fully exempt. And it actually creates some issues, I think, for us as far as availability for some of the younger guys coming off the web.

And out of the nationwide qualifying series, I don't know, exact name for it. You mean, so you mean the guys 125 to retain your card? Yeah, I think that number's too high. I think if we went to 100, it would open up some things. Light a little fire. Because I mean, yeah, like, it was web grads.

They can't get into all the events. And I mean, the guy who's finished in the last this year is probably getting 15, 16 events. That's not really a fair shake. Right. It's tough to keep your cards. Yeah, it's real tough. So I think we took that number reduced it to 100. There'd be some more playing opportunities for some of the younger guys.

You know there's about 175, 180 guys full time out here and if you only have to beat about 50 or 55 of them to keep your jobs, yeah, not saying that it's not competitive, but the numbers are in your favor. Yeah, exactly. I don't want to say don't deserve it. That probably won't be very popular amongst my peers, but. It might be. I've been on both sides of it too though.

It might be, it will be popular amongst the younger guys too, that are coming up. And I think it will give us a better us a better numbers for guys getting access to events. Yeah, I think if I, I won't put the words in your mouth, but you determine the fat at the bottom could be a positive thing, I think, for the tour. A little bit. Yeah, could be. Alright, I'll let you get out of here on that. That was awesome, duff.

Thank you for the time. Best of luck this week and I hope to do it again sometime. Appreciate it. Thank you. Get a right club. Be the right club today. Yes! Ready?

That's better than most. How about in? That is better than most. Better than most. Better than most.