Subpar - Graham Delaet Interview: Catching a much needed break playing in Canada, fighting off the chipping yips

Episode Date: May 11, 2021

On this week's episode of GOLF's Subpar, PGA Tour pro Graham DeLaet joins former PGA Tour pro Colt Knost and jicky jack legend Drew Stoltz for an exclusive, in-studio, interview. The Boise State Hall of Famer talks being down to his last few bucks before turning it around in Canada, battling the chipping yips on Tour, and his idea for how Golf should be formatted at the Olympics.

Hello world. Welcome to another week of golf subpar, Colt Nost and Drew Stoltz coming at you. And what a week sleaze we had at the Wells Fargo. First of all, we were out there, getting amongst it with all of our boys, filmed a lot of interviews, which is going to be really exciting. They're going to be coming up in the near future. But Roy McRoy, with an impressive victory, ended a nice little drought and put on a clinic around Quayl Hollow Club. Yeah, it was clinical. I mean, if you look at his stats, he was top three in driving distance, greens and regs, scrambling, and strokes game putting. So not much more than that.

When Rory puts all that together, he's going to be tough to beat. But, yeah, it's been about a year and a half since he's got it done. And now we can finally put to bed all the Rory talk. What's wrong with Rory? What's the matter? He dropped a 15th in the world, blah, blah, all that. All it takes is one week. He's back.

And now he's the betting favorite at the PJ Championship in Q here in a few weeks. So pretty much that's how quickly things can change in this world. Yeah, things change very, very quickly. But, you know, he's been working with Pete Cowan in the last couple months. Seemed to have things kind of straightened out a little bit. I mean, got the was good enough to win around, Hollow, his third victory around there, the only place he's ever done that. So awesome job by Roy McRoy to pick up his 19th PGA Tour win. And so ladies, before we get to our guest this week,

some cool things have been happening. Well, it's cool for us. I'm not sure if it's very cool for our guy, Adam Thielen, but some comments he made here on golf subpar have been, have made the news. And some people, particularly up in Green Bay, aren't very happy about it. Yeah, I mean, I woke up, I guess it started happening last night, and then I woke up to a bunch more messages like, dude, your boy Thielin, it's all blowing up about Lambo. I was like, what are you talking about? And then all of a sudden I looked on my social. And it was basically, like, his response to the question was, what's your favorite road environment or something along those lines, right? And he immediately said Lambo clearly because of the Packer Viking rivalry and things like that. But they cut off,

the clip that was taken, they cut off the beginning of his quote where it said, Lambo is my favorite road place to play. But then he went on to say, the stadium is not nice. There's nothing fancy about it like it's bleacher seats. And that was the quote that they took and put it up there and Packer fans are going ham over this stuff right now, which I don't know about you, Colt. Like, I've never played Lambo, you never played Lambo, but we got a bunch of friends that have, I don't know what about that quote you could get upset about. I think Packer fans themselves would agree with that. Lambo isn't fancy. It's not Jerry World. You don't have all the bells and whistles. So I don't know what the uproar is about. Well, I just think they read that quote that

the piece they took and it makes it sound like he's hating all over it, you know, because he's a Viking and they have the huge rival with the Green Bay Packers. But he was not in the same. consulting it. I mean, it's great for us because it's getting out there in the news. You know, I mean, he was on Pat McAfee explaining himself yesterday. You know, it's been on Bleacher Report. I know NFL lives look as, as picked it up. So good for our brand. I feel bad for our guy Adam Thieland having to answer these ridiculous questions. But like I said, hey, our name's getting out there more. So thank you for taking one for the team, Adam. Thank you, Adam. Yeah, and I was actually just texting with him.

He is my brother. He's clearly my twin brother. So I got to defend him. He's blood. But I was just text with him. I was like, dude, sorry. I had no idea. Like, this shit would go this crazy. Like that, he's like, dude, don't worry about it. It's all good. Things like that. He's like, NFL fans are crazy. They're passionate. I totally get it. But, uh, yeah, I mean, that was, it was wild to see how much, how much steam that's gotten with Adam feeling in that quote, Lambeau Field. I love it. Watch what you say about the place. Yeah, Pat McAfee. If you want to come on golf some part, we'd love to have you. Yeah, holler at us. Sit down and talk with you. All right. Well, let's get to the man of the hour. Our guy, Canadian.

and Graham Delette is this week's guest on golf subpar. And it does not disappoint, say the least. No, dude, this is one of the best guys in golf. I feel like we get redundant saying that, but I truly mean it. You're very close with him. I've spent a ton of time with him before he was Graham DeLette, before he was President's Cup player and all that stuff. And it's been really cool to watch his progress and not a better guy,

not only on the golf course, but also sit down and have a beer with. I think people will love this interview. Yep. He holds nothing back. Here he is. Graham DeLette on Golf Sub. bar. All right, we got the pride of Wabron, Saskatchewan with us here

tonight. PJ Tour Vett, Olympian, president's cupper, pilot, barbecue wizard, man of many talents, the great Graham DeLette is here. How we don't? Pleasure to be here, fellas. God, it's good to see you. Listen to every episode. We have been waiting on this for a very long time. We had to do it live. Yeah, we did. I agree with you on that. You moved away from us.

You left Whistbarok, you left Scottsdale. You go back to Boise. And we said we weren't going to do it until you came back, but you're here for the member guest at Whistperop with your man. the wizard, Ray Whitney. The wizard. Cannot wait. My enemy. My enemy.

Sleeping with the enemy. I just heard he shot two under today, so I'm pretty excited about the next few days. Yeah, he's not a bad partner to have. That little bastard. Let's learn a little bit about Graham DeLette for the people out there that don't know because obviously you grew up in Canada and hockey was your number one dream, correct? Always. Yeah.

So what the hell? Why did you pick up golf? I wasn't good enough at hockey, unfortunately. Good reason. Look at Drew. Look at our legs, man. These are not hockey legs. You're the first guest on the show was the same size.

It's not smaller legs than mine. We should get the tape out. We should. We have to be a little calf contest because you got the little Canada flag on the on the calf. We should do a cap contest. I don't know if I could fit the American flag on mine. If I was going to mimic that.

Be close. The full flag. You get like 46 stars on that. Yeah, we'd have to just shrink the country a little bit. Okay, we can do that after the show, no doubt. That'd be great. But what age did you give up hockey? I played through high school.

So I was like 18. And that's like the first time actually I hurt my back. Because I was going to play like junior aid like in my home. hometown or whatever and just because that's what you kind of did and then if you weren't good enough to go any further than that whether it's u.s. college or whatever then you just get a job and mostly in the oil field like where i grew up and uh but then i heard my back playing hockey and that's when my dad was basically like hey you've always been a pretty good golfer maybe we should look that right oh so you still played golf the whole time you were playing hockey though yeah so like it was

basically perfect like where i grew up it was like six months of hockey and just as hockey season was ending it was kind of like that may time and like the snow was all melancho. and it was time to play golf. And then as soon as, you know, the, you know, the weather started to change and the fall was here and you were kind of sick of playing golf, boom, hockey season started up. So it was like just kind of perfect. And I, like, I really think that that was like a big thing for me was like I always played two sports.

I played a little bit of volleyball and stuff like that in high school. But it was I was never like so into golf. And like, in all honesty, like I didn't get good at golf until I was into my 20s for, for the most part. you're pretty good at Boise you won 10 times how did you get to Boise like if you're playing two sports all throughout you're probably not playing all the AJGAs and the stuff the kids do now to get looked at how did you get a look from Boise yeah honestly like we hired like my dad I say we but he we hired like a college like placement service we sent up I sent my resume to him

and he basically sent it out across all the colleges in the U.S and I got a couple small bites and Boise State was big basically it was like the best offer financially that we had I mean, my family was, we were, we, we did pretty well or whatever, but, uh, you know, at that point in time, the U.S. dollar was like 65, or the Canadian dollar was like 65 cents to the U.S. dollars. So everything, I'd go to McDonald's to get a big Mac. My dad would check the bank county, be like, dude, what did you get in McDonald's? That was like, $17 Canadian or whatever. So, um, so I basically, I didn't even go on a recruiting trip there. Just, you know, I was like, this is what I'm going to do. We'll give it a whirl. And obviously it worked out great. I mean, I live there now full time. I met my wife there. It's just, it's such a great city. It's booming right now, and I couldn't be happy. Although I do wish I still spend a little more time here in the winter. But, yeah.

But Boise, sneaky good downtown, though. Great town. Oh, my gosh, I've had a lot of fun there. It's a great, great town. It's exploding, though, right now. The place is blown out. Were you big into, like, going to every football game? You know, got the blue turf.

Every game that we were, you know, when I was at school, every home game, we went. And then even, like, to this day, like, if I'm around for a home game, I still like to go, yeah. So you're on the first. running of boys again like becoming the boys. Right when I came, it was actually crazy and I tell DA so because Oregon State came to town and we like absolutely smoked them. They were up like 14 nothing. I think we ended up beating them like 45, 14.

That's when DA was quarterback at Oregon State. And that was like one of the first games that I saw. I was like, oh, this is amazing. And we lost like two home games, maybe only one actually in like the whole time that was actually at school. And it was the same time you were at TCU and we were kind of like the little engines that could. the NCAA or whatever. Obviously now you guys are in the big 12 and we're still kind of like

stuck in a rut just trying to get you know to the next place but hopefully that happens for us. Yeah and then they threw us in the BCS the one year. I know here we're both unbeaten throw the kiddies table over here. I remember having a few cocktails of that Fiesta bowl. Yeah. And running out of the stadium going T.C. Who? T.C. Who? That's good. That's good. Yeah. I like that. Never heard it. Never heard it. That is fantastic. What year were you in school and Mike? We were on the masters. That was 03. So I was at Pocate. Idaho State Golf Tournament in Blackfoot, actually, Blackfoot Idaho when that all happened. And I came in.

He had just made the put on the 72nd hole to go to the playoff. And yeah, that was like one of the time. So you didn't get to see the whole day. No, that was. I mean, I've seen the replays and everything since, but live, no. And like, I remember finishing and just running straight. And my dad was actually there. Ironically, it was like the crazy.

And like we were like, there was like him and one of his buddies came down. We're like three Canadians in there. We're like screaming and all these other kids in the teams are like looking at it. like what the hell is going on like why are you guys so active but yeah that was a that was a big moment you know in canadian golf history i was going to say explain how big that was for canada huge not only just for golf or just for sport but just like uh just in general for like humanity i mean like he's an absolute legend in canada and always will be i mean he's you name it he's basically he can do anything he wants in canada like i mean he if he wants to drop the pocket of the maple

leaves game he can do that if he wants to uh you know the green jacket is basically a golden ticket to go anywhere you want to go in canada at least you know he wants to you for one year. And yeah, man, he earned it. He's, I mean, he was number three in the world. And he was one of the main reasons why, you know, I got to where I got to. There's a lot of young Canadians on tour now. And I would imagine Mike Weir's the reason why. For sure. And like, the only guy that I don't really know that well who's really playing the best right now is Corey Connors. I mean, I'd know him to say hello. But, you know, right when I first initially got hurt kind of at the end of 2017, it was right when he came on tour. So I don't know him super well. But I know, like,

for like myself and Adam and David, Nick Taylor, McKenzie Hughes. Like, I know because I've spoken with him about it, that he's the reason why we all chase the dream. And like, like, not that we wouldn't have anyways, but he gave us the belief that we could do it. Yeah, he's like the, like a lot of the reason you talked about some of the young guys that are up there now, Tiger in 97 at the Masters. Like, that's when golf became cool. That's when we started to do it.

Guys that could play other sports all of a sudden went to golf. And like for, for Canadians, it's kind of like they all can remember that Mike. We were masters. And like that's when golf became a reality in Canada for a lot of these guys. Yeah, for sure. And I mean, like at that point in time, I was starting to play pretty good golf. I was in my senior year. Or no, no, I graduated in 06.

So that was 0. Sophomore. Yeah. I didn't go to school that much. It's actually a funny story. I got a, I had to, so I got my degree. But so I got a phys ed degree pretty much was just trying to get the solid.

Easyest degree. Communication seemed a little tough. So I went to P.E. route, but, um, but I was one credit shy because like, we always played golf, you know, like every afternoon like one o'clock or whatever it was. And there was a track and field class that I hadn't passed, but I just kept like pushing it away and not taking it. It was like a one credit class. It was like a 12 week or four week class or whatever. Never took it because it was always, you know, Wednesday afternoon when you play golf or whatever. So then it ended up, I was

one credit shy of graduating. And my coach lobbied to the university saying, hey, man, like this hurts are what's it called uh there's like a like a team GPA graduation rate there's like a word for a p r or something like that but it's like this hurts our rate but he's turning pro and like he's not going to come back to do a track and field class next fall so i would like either so they gave me an option in like the may of 2006 right after i had finished school to i did a social dance class for three weeks it was like three times a week got my social dance got my last credit they just made that my track and field credit and graduated any video of that You in the social dance class?

There's usually video. I think we had some video from your wedding. Oh, yeah. There was some performances. Well, Andre stole that show. That's a story for another. I listen to that story when he was, when he was telling you guys that, man, I was just laughing. I'm like, I remember that sound of that.

It was legitimate scary. I was out there and the dance was like a skating rink at that point because all the drinks being spilled and people going crazy. And he came running out first time after you go say hi to everyone and just nothing hit for his feet went out. And the first thing that hit was the back of his head. And I was like, I legit. Yeah, it was scary. This is a problem. Yeah.

So I'm watching the wire right now. Have you guys watched that show from? So that's where the cutting the tie thing comes from, I think. They do that. Yeah, when he got you. Yeah, I didn't know that, but I just like hit that episode. Yeah, he snatched Colts tie and cut it out. Tied around his head.

More around his head. What a nice guy. Like Rambo. Amazing. You're the only dude at that wedding that played good the next week. You play good. I should have won. Yeah, you could have won.

You missed the hole from like three feet like six different times on Sunday. Andres did not come close to one. I think Andre's the highest. He finished last by a long shot. 36-old record of tour. I mean, after Boise State, you turn pro, and I've heard some of your most fun times as a pro golfer were right out of school, Canadian tour.

I didn't actually even know. You played in South Africa on the Sunshine Tour. Yeah. Tell us a little bit. Give us some fun stories. Honestly, like I tell people, like even like yourself, like you never played many tours. Like those were the most fun times in my life.

And like you asked pretty much everyone. Like I feel like you appreciate the PJ Tour more when you get there because you've lived you've lived like a broke life for basically three years but like the camaraderie on that tour compared the PJ tour that's where you want to be obviously because you know what else is make it's fun is making millions of dollars like that's a lot of fun there's different types of fun but like man like me james love and bear gerash for the most part sprinkling drew here and there and mike mazie and jcd compete laws and some of those guys Andrew Parr, but we traveled together and like, you know, three or four of us in a rental car and

three guys in a room, high guys sleeping on the floor between the mattresses and, uh, just crushing beers at every single. You were a beer guy? Canadians. Well, no, he drank cocktails, but. I got this cocaine with the iceberg on top of a little vodka thing. That's first time I got introduced to it. And I'd have like one at dinner and like these dudes, the Canadian dudes would be on their fourth.

And Dre and I would look at each are like, what are we? Are we? What are we doing? These dudes are animals. This is ridiculous. Oh, it's so much fun, man. Yeah, and yeah, so then I played in 2009, because I would always come down here. So, 06, 7, and 8 were the first three years I was playing mini tours.

And then I was like, in 2009, I played pretty good on the Canadian tour. Or 2008, I played pretty good on the Canadian tour. And it got me status on the Sunshine Tour down in South Africa. And I was like, I was here playing mini tours. And my agents like, hey, you can go down and play some. And there were actually co-st sanctioned events with the European Tour. I'm like, fuck, yeah, sign me up and get me on a plane like tomorrow. I'm going.

It's a long way. It is. Yeah, I went there three different times that year. Wow. So the first time I went down, I played two European, because I was just, I'm like, I'll go down and play. Because obviously we're playing for $100,000 persons here. And those ones were like probably like 1.5 million US. So I'm like, I'm not going to turn that down, obviously.

So I flew all the way over. I finished 12th and 12th, Joe Berg open and African open. And so now, which is, which is good, right? And now I'm like, well, now I'm like third on their money list for their members. Like obviously there was European tour players, but the way that it worked. So now I'm like, well, I should go back because they had all these different things that you could do for their membership would get you through to European Tour School, final stage or whatever it was. So I'm like, I'm going to go back. So I went back. I finished second second second second second in these two events, flew home again. And then, but there's a caveat in this thing in order to get to the, I think if you were top 10 on the money list, you would get to final stage in Europe. And at this point, I'd gone to Q school every year here, got to second stage, missed by one, got to second stage, missed by one. And you know how it is. So if you get to second stage and miss, you might as well not have gone. Exactly.

Yeah. And so I'm like, but you have to play five events in order for this to kick in. So I'm like, oh my God. I go for one. I flew all the way back there again. And then I won, but it was like kind of like one of their like off field events. Yeah, but you won. Yeah.

So I won there. And then so then I was like fourth on the list. So I'm like, oh, sweet. I'm like, I got final stage in Europe. Like I'm going to go do that. So this is 2009. And then that year I got through to Q school or I got through to final stage here, finally and they're at the same time so obviously you know i live here in the u.s my my wife's here and

everything my life's here but i always like think about how things would be different if i didn't get through second stage here that year i mean i could my whole life could be over in europe and i would have never met you guys well i had to met you yeah we would have each other yeah well i believe you a little bit too yeah but this 2008 is a year i really remember that was my first year up there and you were coming off like a big season the year before we started off in can't in can't have the best start in the world and i can distinctly remember that this. I don't know if you'll remember this, but we were coming home. I believe it was from Winnipeg. And you and I were in the same way, so we were sharing a car going back with

like James and Barrett and all those dudes. And you had missed the cup and you had been playing well. And you were literally in the car with me talking about like, dude, I feel bad like Ruby's at home. I don't know if I can keep doing this. I'm going bad. You just gotten married. Like she's at home. I'm out here spending money, not making any money. There was a legit time where you were contemplating not playing anymore. I was done. No, I literally, I was down to my last buck and my sponsor at the time who was Kevin Burton was my coach at Boise State. One of his best buddies and the guy that changed my life is named Mark Hedge. He's from Las, lives in Las Vegas.

And he, I call him, I'm like, man, I'm broke. I'm done. I'm dejected. I'm not having fun. We had like, I don't know, four or five tournaments left in the year before we went out east. And I'm like, if you have any more money, I've wanted, you know, I got like four or five events left. And he's like, I can give you another 5K. And I probably wasn't even enough to do the rest.

But he's like, I'm like, okay. And we were home for like three weeks. We had like a big break in the schedule. And I'm like, okay, well, this is. it and like not that I I worked hard all the time like I felt like I always always always doing the right things but that was like I buckled down and then we went to Montreal at one street yeah and then I finished second the next two weeks and then like fourth or something into her championship and that just like completely

like springboarded me and it was like it was all confidence it's like I wasn't a different player it was just like I started believing in it again what if he would have said no to no more money I probably would have scratched and clod and found five grand somewhere and at least finished the year off like I was wasn't I wasn't ready to quit by any means, but I mean, you know, golf's not fun when you're not playing well. And when you're away from a new wife and you're completely broke and you're second guessing whether this is something you even want to do, it's even harder. Like there's so many thoughts that they were weighing down on you. Is that like the separate, sorry, that was like the

separation I feel like between like early Graham and then the new gram. As soon as you went home, we had that break and you were contemplating quitting. You got this money. You came back. And then you went second, first, second, second or whatever it was. Like from that point on, like, never look back. That was, that was just a change in mental attitude, you think? I don't really know. I mean, it was confidence more than anything. But as soon as I, that win in Montreal was what like did it for me. I was like, okay, I'm good enough to be out here. I'm going to stop fucking around. And I actually, I remember, remember Joe Horowitz? Yeah. The best. Oh, yeah. The best guy. So it was, I think it was in Winnipeg. It might have been the

week before in Edmonton or something like that too. But he's like, we're having a couple beers. And he's like, I don't know if he would even remember this, but he's like, Graham, he's like, what are you doing? I'm like what? He goes, stop missing cuts. I'm like, yeah, fuck, you're right. What am I doing? But it's true.

I'm like, because I was trying so hard. He's like, stop trying to make cuts. Like make some money, win some tournaments or whatever. And like that was like I remember that. It was like a key point. And then, you know, the little bit of a break, maybe just like a reset and then came back and then we're all systems. Yeah, because we all knew it too.

It's like, all right, that's a little bit different than what everybody, you know, we could see it. Like you had the talent to do all this crazy stuff. And then it was all of a sudden just like a flipping of a switch, bam. And then you were all. Is that, does that kind of explain why like when you made it through Q school in 2010, you were so emotional?

Yeah, for sure. I mean, like, I remember my agent gave me a big hug right on, came off the 72nd green or, well, 108 green or whatever. And he's like, your life's about to change. And like,

like it was just like everything just kind of hit me. And I was leaking oil so bad that last day, man. That Bear Lakes, water everywhere. And I was like so clear. Like, I mean, as long as I didn't shoot probably 70,

I was going to get my tour car. But like, where you finish is obviously makes a difference too, right? And I was in the final group was me, Troy Merritt and Tom Pernice. And, like, Troy was playing great.

And it was nice to, like, have a guy that I knew playing. I didn't know Tom or whatever at that time. But so we're playing and, like, we get to, like,

probably like, 12 or something on that last day. And I, like, pop up a three wood in the water. No, not you. You don't pop three. I,

I pop up. I pop up this three wood in the water. And now I'm like, oh my God. I make double. And then I hit another ball in the water on like 14 or 15. But then I birdied 17, two putted a par five, and then made like a bomb on 18. And then I finished eighth. And that got me in everything in the West Coast.

It was huge. Like at the time, it was huge just like emotionally. But then I looked back because like I even got into Phoenix. I was like an alternate, but I got into Phoenix my rookie year, which is like, that's a hard tournament to get into sometimes. So yeah, man. It was, that was crazy. What a whirlwind. But yeah, when you, when you're active, like, you never failed a Q school.

But when you fail a Q school, they're like, every time you go back, it gets harder and harder. And it really does because you know, if you get through your first time, you just think it's easy. And maybe it is. Why everybody freak out? Yeah. Right. Scar tissue builds. It definitely does.

And I've heard, I mean, I listen to your guys' podcast all the time. I love it, by the way. Oh, thanks. That's why you're a guy. I know, you got so much scar tissue, bud. I'm just cute school. It's just building up. It has so much scar.

It is one of those things. Just like you said, you get out first time, you make it through. You're like, oh, dude, what's the bit? Why is everyone, you know, why are they writing books about this tournament? Like, it's not that hard. Just go on places and put it off and you get through. But then you have the disaster and you miss by one at second. Then you go back the next year.

Now you're thinking about it and then you miss by two. The more that builds up, the harder it becomes to get through that stage and that second stage. And you realize the importance of it each time even more and more. And you see so many guys that you know they're great players. and now they're like, they're 28 and 30, and they're still doing it. And you're like, man, like, how long is this guy going to keep chasing this or doing this? But it's like, well, it's all you know, first of all. And you know that all you have to do is play good in second stage to get through.

So it seems like that's good enough because you know once you get to the web or the corn fairy or whatever, you're going to, you're better than, because you see the guys that are on the corn fairy and you played against and you beat them all through college and mini tours and stuff like that. And you're like, man, you see them having a success and moving on to the PJ tour and you're happy for them, but you know that you can play or with them or beat them like pretty much every day. Yeah, if all else fails, just start one of the world's best podcasts. Yeah.

You got that fall back on. Then you can interview your friends. Yeah, it's very simple. But you have dealt, you've had some tough times on tour though with injuries and stuff like that. And I know currently right now you're, you're battling some, but what's been the biggest issue with you throughout your career with injuries? Yeah, well, my back.

I mean, it's, I mean, my back started bugging me probably when I was like 15 years old playing hockey. So and it's like it was always between periods I was laying on the floor and I mean when you're 15 You're limber and like like no 15 year old has back issues So I was stretching in between periods and that kind of thing And then as I kind of like moved along the first time I like really heard my back When I was telling one of my dad's like hey maybe we should go the golf route

Like I was like almost like for like a month my dad was like putting my socks on in the morning And like the thing that sucks about Canada with the socialized medicine I know we got Canadians listening to the show but it's like man you can't can't get in. You're in this, like, line or this cute. And then by the time I could finally get in for an MRI, which could have, like, changed my life at that time, I was already, I was, because I was 18, I had healed and I was good. And I'm like, ah, I don't need an MRI or whatever. I'll just go to college. And then it was always, like, three or four times a year, I would, like, throw my back out at school, whether it was playing golf or playing basketball or working out or whatever it was. And,

you know, I'd be laid up for three, four days. And then I'd kind of bounce out of it. When you're younger, it's a lot easier. And then as you get older, it's just kind of like, and I don't know if it's from golf or if it's from hockey or if it's from the way that I swing or whatever it is. But like, there's torque, you know, on the lower part of my back. And it's just, it's, and as I've gotten older, it's just like, it's become like, and both the surgeries that I had helped a lot. The microdicectomies, which is what tigers had, you know, multiple ones of those. It took all like the sharp shooting, stabbing pain away that was going down my leg and everything. But now I'm dealing a lot more with just like, just achy, sore, like just kind of like all the

time even like sitting here like I'm like always kind of just like adjusting or whatever you know in my seat because I just can't ever like kind of get comfortable but that's our fault we should have you a more comfortable share yeah a lumbar support mark what the hell are we doing here everyone's fired yeah well give us an update where are you at right now like with your back and things like yeah so I just actually had another procedure which was uh it's a radio frequency ablation which is actually kind of need and it's something that I kind of gone down the road a couple years ago and ended up not doing it um but I found a new doctor here this year that thought it was a good idea so I went through with it and I'm just kind of on the tail end of, it's not really a recovery.

Like you're just a little bit sore. I was telling Colton on the way over. Like it just kind of still feels like a little almost like bruised down there right now. But they say after like about a month after, which is next week, I'll be a month into this. That that should go away. And I am definitely feeling like a little bit of relief. So I'm optimistic for the first time in a walk. I mean, there was, I was sitting down with my buddies in like January having a couple beers.

I'm like, man, I'm like, I don't know if I can keep. doing this like the chase is what like gets old you know what i mean it's like and and it's people care and they're always like man you got to go see this guy have you tried this have you you got to go to denver and see this man i've ticked all the boxes i guarantee and like and is there things that i haven't done probably but like the chase just gets really old after a while um so i'm really hopeful that this can give me a little bit of relief enough that i can just like practice like when i was out playing in the fall i played four events and then withdrew in houston because i was just kind of like hurt and I was having trouble just like putting the tea in the ground and get my ball out of the

hole again after like seventh hole or something on Friday. But that's one thing like we've talked about over this whole time is like I mean I don't know what percent you were at when you were trying to play this past fall but I was like you can't play it 70 percent out there against these guys. They're just too good. It's tough and it's like man like it's it's harder now. Like I it really is like the young talent and like they have this fuck you attitude and it's awesome right like because they're but they're coming out so ready to play and so eager and so hunger. and like, why wouldn't you be in? There was a $15 million person, the players championship a couple weeks ago, you know?

So, yeah, and it's, and the hardest thing for me, in all honesty, last fall when I came back to play was that I wasn't able to really prepare. I was good enough to, like, play 18 holes. And I was sore throughout the day. And then as soon as I'm done, it's like on the table, getting some work done. But like, no practice. And like, at least, like, maybe practicing a little bit, but not like good. Like, I used to always pride myself on how hard I worked when I was working when I was living down here full time.

I mean, it was like gym every day, working with Gabe or whatever it was for two, three hours, playing and like putting in like, you know, between four to nine hour days like every single day. And that gives you the confidence when you stand on the tea on Thursday morning that you deserve to play well type of thing. And that's the one thing that I would really struggle with last fall is that I didn't really feel like I put in the work to deserve to play well. And I know that that like sound made like kind of sounds silly or whatever, but it's like if you don't believe in your head that you're prepared or that you've done the right things. And you're already just so far behind the eight ball. And that was like a big part of like why I just played so poorly that. And I was just putting really bad.

And you got to get so stir crazy though when you've been hurt for as long as you have. As soon as you start getting close to like, oh, I'm feeling better. I'm feeling. You want to do something because you've been laid up for so long. It's like, dude, I got to do something. I'm going to go crazy that you might like push it and go a little bit too early and it ends up setting you back. Yeah. And so my plan right now, and that's, that's very true.

So my plan right now is to like, hopefully this thing like just gives me an up relief where I can like, like, I'm in decent shape right now, but I'm not like training. And I want to get my body strong. So if that's like two months of like good, hard working out before I start putting in like those days and testing it. Because I don't want to like if as soon as I start feeling good, put in a four hour practice day and then be on my back for like three or four days again. So that's kind of like my planning. Like while I do that, I mean, I can go play like right now. I'm playing, you know, a couple times a week with my buddies back home.

And it hurts a little bit, but you're riding in a card. It's not that bad. And have a couple of cocktails. And but which is weird. Like when I used to, when I was playing, I would never have a cocktail in the golf course, ever. I'd sit down in the 19th hole with you as long as you want. But now it's just like, it takes a little bit of that edge off and it's fun. It's fun.

That's the solution. Yeah. It's just load up that Yeti. They don't know what's inside of there. Okay. Well, I got to ask you about this one thing. And you can totally tell me to fuck off. It's perfectly fine.

but you were very open about your battle with the chipping yes and one i'm curious why you were so open with it because i think a lot of listeners out there will appreciate this because i'm guessing they probably all battle this but you were very very open about it you even you withdrew from i believe the memorial yeah and you put out a tweet and said you're battling it scott van pelt was on sports center said the best thing he heard all day was that he thought it was so cool that you were open and honest about it what made you be open to the public about that i really thought at the time that if i did that it would like get me kind of over this like hump and like just um i just felt like being honest like because i could have easily i've had

so many back issues i could easily said my back was weird and taken a month off but i just wanted to be honest because i thought that that would be the way that i would get through it um and in all honesty like i've it's crazy like there's been like you know support almost um you know there's a lot of people that obviously deal with it i still kind of am um you know i was chipping one-handed when i went out and played last fall um but i actually got pretty good good at it. Yeah, you did. Um, that being said, I'm actually like, I've, the last like few times I've played in Boisey, I've been chipping with two hands. It's not like every time. Like I kind of always like know when it's coming or I can think that it like might be. And it's like this weird, uncontrollable

little hibbitty jibbity, like right at the right at the ball. Like and, uh, do you remember like the first time it happened? I remember it slowly creeping in and it was at, uh, um, quail hollow I think it was like 2015 is a number 15 the part five I hit a driver three wood just up there kind of just short of the green I'd like 20 yards and the pin was kind of in the front almost in that little bowl you know and I just hit it like a little bit thin it was and I'm like and I hit it to like 20 feet just up on top like it was a terrible shop but I was like like what the hell I'm like I kind of like flinched at that thing and then so like we that was on our front nine we got to like two I hit it just short of the green

I had like one that I was like I literally I pulled the pin out I was like trying to make it and I hit it like I don't know halfway to the hole or something I'm like what the hell and I look to jewels I'm like dude I think I think I have the yips right now and he's like no you don't dude he's like whatever and then it just kind of like progressed man like it really did and um I don't know if there's a way out of it although like I'm slowly I'm slowly getting there and but there's nothing that I've I've well I've I've done I've seen different coaches technically um, worked with two,

two different mental people to try to like figure it out and like, um, yeah, it's a weird deal, man. Like, and it's like, like,

like I said, I'm, I'm not hiding from it. Like, there's, there's, there's, there's a lot of people that do.

And like, the way I look at it too is like, I'm lucky that there's so many people that deal with like anxiety on like this massive level where they can't even walk out of their door at home or they, they're scared to, you know, touch their car door or get in a car or whatever. This,

I mean, it, obviously it affects my ability to play golf really, really well, but I played 2015, 2016, 2017 like that and did pretty well. Like, I mean, you talk to anyone and I know that you have. It's like, man, I was putting from everywhere. Ray Caddy for me in the Olympics, I was putting from everywhere. We're going to get to that. That was actually, that was a good course for me to put from ever because everything was like tight and it was like everything was rolling ice. And I mean, I was like I was second place after the first day like I mean I was still playing pretty good

and made it the playoffs yeah I remember you're at Harbertown you have a lead you're in the last group on Sunday and Harbertown's a great place as well if you know the green it's very tight around the greens you can just put from everywhere yeah no for sure yeah even guys that chip a great put from around that dude I finished seventh at the PGA Quail Hollow and literally literally could not chip didn't chip that's incredible well I mean if I was in the Ropp had to chip yeah but then you got a little but that is it well so what's helped more seeing the technical guys the chipping coach, the chipping coach?

Nothing. No, nothing. It's just been time, man. And it's like, it's slowly fading away. And it's weird

because I can feel it fading away now. And like forever, like, man, like when I withdrew from, that was one of the lowest points in my entire life. I'm not going to lie. I had a breakdown on the driving range with Gabe and Jules. And I had my sunglasses on and I was crying.

I'm like, dude, I cannot play. What if I misogreen? I can't play it. I can't play golf like this. It's impossible. So I took a month off and thinking,

I'm like, I just need some time. time off. Well, I came back. It was the same. But I couldn't sleep. Like, it was bad. Um, crazy. Yeah. But it was, but now all of a sudden, just like, just in the like the last like month or so that I've been playing and I'm just like, I just committed to like just chipping with two hands and like just not worrying too much about it. I know like sometimes like if I got like a little bit of a dicey lie or something, I'm still going to one hand it. Um, but just that has allowed me to like, I can feel it that's like coming in.

It was kind of like starting to creep into like my half wedges from like 60 yards or whatever. Those have been a lot better lately. So I feel like once those start coming down and coming in. Is there ever? Tiger had it. Yeah. I know. I remember when he had that because I was playing that tournament.

Yeah. Yeah. That was your Stads one. What a party. Oh my God. You might talk about that too. Maybe if anyone can remember anything that happened. But let me, let me ask you this one last thing about the Yips though because I feel like as a tour player,

like you don't want to be judged negatively. So like say you're 30 yards from the green. I put it. Yeah. Well, I mean. But any moment in your mind, you're like, God, these people are all going to think I'm, I can't do it.

Oh, yeah. That's a tough part because you hear a lot of, I mean, even commentators like, oh, I can't believe he's putting it from here. Hey, when that's the only option you have. Sometimes that's what you got to do. Dude, I would like hit a shot, say I had a five iron into a green and I can see it missing the green.

My heart would start racing. Racing. And as I got closer and closer to the ball, it was like, I was pounding so hard that I didn't even know if I could like it was like hard to like pull a club out of the bag sometimes Is it bunkers too or just tight lies? No bunkers were fine because I could bring speed. I could bring speed even flop shots were fine But yeah, I was I mean but I remember watching I'm like how does tiger woods like how can he not like like my son is five if I give him a sandwich He could chip it to three feet sometimes like it's it's actually like a really really simple skill like how can the best player of all time

he's struggling with this. I'd like to know how he got out of it. Yeah, because this shit's tight now. And there was a few chips. I was like, oh, my God. Because he had a four iron out at TPC Scottsdale. You know what I mean? I know, with the green to work with him.

The mine's so powerful. But even when he won in 2019, like he flared that five iron over there. And he could make bogey and win. And I'm like, oh, this could be. You never. One of those little, he comes into play. Like, this thing could be interesting. Yeah, it's a scary thing.

But, yeah. And like, honestly, this is the one thing I want to say about is like, I'm like, so fortunate, I think, that my anxiety only causes such a small problem in my life. You know, like, honestly, like, it's like, it's such a big thing that does need to be talked about a little bit more. And it's happening now, you know, you see a lot of different athletes like Kevin Love came out there a few years ago and talked about his. You see pitchers who can throw a fucking 95 mile an hour and just paint the side of the plate, but they can't throw it to first base. It happens in all the basement. It's a great three-point shooters that can't shoot a free throw. It happens

So it's a weird thing. I don't know if anyone will ever, like, figure out what causes it, whether it's, like, in everyday life or in sports or whatever. But I'm just, I'm just happy that I'm still like a healthy guy. And I, this is, it's a pretty small part of my life that is affected by it and a month. I just thought it was really cool. You were on the back on the opposite side of that, we'll get to this. Because, I mean, I'll give you a big compliment here.

I think you were in the top, top, top tier of players I've ever played with in terms of ball striking, just natural ability and things like that. yet you've never had a lesson more or less correct never had a teacher never got anyone for your full swing you see game for short game and things like that i did yeah but never it was just like a gift you had yeah well yeah thanks but it's like i honestly like i grew up if you if you googled way from scatchezer right now you would wonder like how i ever got here to sit with you guys today yeah but the big leagues yeah but like but in all honesty it's like yeah i always feel like you're like a product of your environment growing up and like we played in crazy

wins every single day with these tiny little turtle back greens they built like a new back nine when I was maybe like 10 years old or something like that that had it was more traditional or whatever but the like I mean you had to just always be in total control and you're always flighting and shaping shots and I learned that kind of just at a young age and it was just by watching TV and like it was that was before like YouTube and like swing instructors and all that kind of stuff where you could just like follow somebody and whatever but we never had a pro at our golf course until I was about 16. And I remember when he came in and I was like so excited that I was going to have

someone I could take lessons from and that kind of thing. And his name was Rod Carroll. There's no disrespect if he's last. But the first time I played with him, I'm like, I beat him by like seven strokes. I'm like, why the fuck would I take lessons from this guy? This makes no sense. He should take from me. So no, but he was a great guy.

But like that's and that's kind of like how I've always been. And I don't know whether that's right or wrong. when I'm like, why would I listen to somebody who can't do it? Or at least who's like never done it under the gun. That's why I always like working with Gabe because, I mean, man, he won twice. His short game was ridiculous. And he's been under the gun and like felt that pump. And it's not that you can't be a good coach without.

Like I listened to you on with Boyd the other day too. Same thing. Like I would, as a player, I would trust him because he's been there. And there's something really to be said about that. There is a lot of great coaches out there. there that that haven't felt it but man it's it's not it's not the same yeah it's a different i agree especially with the short game like with gabe he's like do this and i'm like have you ever like with him he's done it under pressure but like some other guys it's like oh just open it up

and do this and you know use the bounce i'm like yeah okay well what about your heart's beating a hundred and ninety miles an hour like what the hell you're supposed to do i remember uh like my rookie year i'd like on the west coast i'd miss like i've been i played good my first two events Hawaii and both of them and Sony or Hawaii in Palm Springs and then I missed like seven or eight cuts in a row or something and then all of a sudden I've never had a coach I've never even wanted a coach and I mean Foley's a Canadian guy I love that guy you need to have him on here man for sure it's in it's in the works good um but uh I remember I'm like dude I'm like I think I need some help like he's like he's like no he's like Graham do not ever get a coach a swing coach and I'm like well

this is maybe the best coach in the world he was working with Tiger the time, I think. And I'm like, if he says that and, and like, and then obviously I figured it out. And it's like, I was just always like, you go, you dig it out of the dirt and you, and you figure out what to do. And like, that's the one thing right now, too, that I just, I can't go to the range. If I'm hitting my driver bad and hit 60 drivers or 100 drivers and figure it out because my back can't hold up right now. And like, that's like the thing. And then I'd like, feel like I just can't compete if I like don't believe it. You know what I mean? It's a strange deal. Well, not by any means is your career over. You still have a lot of golf left in you. But you finish second three times. You finish third three times. 33 top tens. Looking back, is there one tournament that sticks out that you're like, man, I should have

had that one. Yeah, there's two. Harbor Town. I think that was 2015 or 16. I should have won that one. I snap hooked a T shot on eight into the little tiny little hazard. It's not really in play, but it's kind of there if you snap hook it. And then I have.

I had to drop so far back. I had to like lay up and then I ended up making triple. And then the other one was Hartford. I played well there. I love that place. That's one of my favorite places. Like if you, if you're going on a golf trip to play a TPC,

other than TPC Sawgrass, which is an unbelievable golf course, TPC River Highlands is like the best place, man. It's so much fun. Yeah. But I played good there a couple times. But the one year I lost, I missed out on a.

playoff. It was Ken Duke and Chris Stroud. Chris Stroud hold a bunker shop in the back of, or over 18 green on 17, or on 18. And Kenny Duke, like, hooked one on 14 and hit a tree and bounced down like three feet and made Birdie. And I like, I made a bad bogey on 16 and missed like a five footer on four or 15 for Birdie. And that one stings. Like, I think about it all the time. Because like, and one time at Liberty National, the first time we played there was maybe like 2012 or 13 or something. I left one hanging on the lip in the second and last group,

which would have gotten me into a playoff as well, Adam Scott. But man, I mean, if my career did happen in today, which I don't want it to be over yet, but that's the one thing that like really, like the fact that I never won would have been, it'll eat at me for pretty much forever.

But at the same time, like I feel like I've done some good things in the game. Yeah, it ain't done. And even without winning, you did, I would think one of the highlights of your career if it were in the day the president's cup in 2013 where you were a monster i mean you were three one and one of the and especially the way some of those matches closed out for you with the holling out what twice on the 18th hole yeah i think you almost broke jason his hand 47 times

yeah the fistball was real man it was crazy so i remember like a couple weeks before that i played with g mac at some tournament and uh he's like hey man congrats on the president's cup i'm like yeah like you got any advice or whatever he's like the coolest thing about the rider cup which is what plays obviously. It's like it's like basically like you you can go crazy and do whatever you want and like ride these emotional trains that you would never ever do. And it's like you don't have to force it but just like let it if it's going to if you want to do it just let it happen. And like I remember when I chipped in against Phil and Keegan from the front of 18, there was some guy. The one thing about that week, there was so many rain delays. And what did people do in rain delays?

They just chug Kota go. Like nonstop. So then you can, come back and they're like more vocal and then you have another rendelaine and you come back and it's like it was like pretty nuts but it was it was amazing but there was a guy chirping me on the back of the green side pulled the pin and he had said something like oh you want to you're going to chip in or whatever I'm like well that's what I was trying to do and I like it wasn't even it was like you know you're like seeing stars and it's like it was like this crazy thing and then Kegan made an unbelievable he made like a 12 footer for par to have the match but looking back in hindsight I wish I would have played that way

cooler because I know that that fueled him to make that putt. And he was when at that time, especially like, I mean, like he was a really, really good rider cupper and president's cup player. And like that was like fuel that he probably didn't need. But I, I just kind of like couldn't handle myself. You hold the bunker shot and the singles against Speeth, right? Yeah. Yeah. That was filthy. A little bunker shot, that one. I was one up going into 18. We both hit good T shots and I hit this ball. Like the pin is back left and I short side of myself in that bunker. thing I couldn't do. I mean, I just needed to make par, but I just, whatever. It's like I pulled it. And we got up there and he had a good shot to like 15, 20 feet probably. And like he's probably

thinking, you know, I got a chance to win this whole of the birdie, but good chance that Graham doesn't, you know, even make par. And I hold that bunker shot. And I remember the same thing. And I wanted to go nuts. And I raised my hand and I saw him. And he's such a good guy. Like, you know what I mean? And I'm like, and I just like stepped out of the bunker and shook his hand. And he was young at the time. I was like, he was like just up and coming. He was 19. He was right there when you got out of the bunker. Yeah.

And it was like, I wanted to go nuts, but like, I just, I respect him. I played with him in Houston. This is like, good story about him. In Houston, before he had his car, you get his seven sponsors exemptions or whatever. And we were playing on like a, I think it was either Saturday or Sunday. I think it was a Sunday, but I could be wrong. And we were in like 25th to 30th. Like playing pretty good, but nothing crazy.

But it was like, but when you're on seven starts, you got to make everyone. of them count, especially when you make the cut. And if you're in 25th and you shoot $1,200 on the weekend, I mean, you're finishing third type of thing. And he was having a rough day. And we had turned and we were probably on like, I don't know, 13, 14 or whatever. And he was so cool and collected. And I look back, if I was 19 and knew how important this was and was four over, whatever it was on the day, I'd been losing my mind. And he was like the coolest thing. And I'm like, that's when I knew. I'm like, this kid's got something special. Yeah, you were right. And I, I just respected them.

That's why one of the reasons I love the President's Cup is because like the way they do the pairings, right? Team USA puts a team out. Our internationals match it, right? The internationals put a team out, we match it. How did that match up come that week? Did they throw, did the internationals throw you out and then we match with Speeth? I actually can't remember.

I remember early in the week before the tournament even started. We're all like having like a dinner or whatever together. And Tony Johnstone, who is one of the assistant captains, who was an absolute beauty. I mean, there's a guy you should have on, too, the stories that he's got from playing European tour and stuff. But he basically just went and asked each guy, who do you want to play? Like, I mean, not that we're going to definitely make it happen. Who do you want to play? And that's what I said.

I'm like, I want the kid. Oh, yeah. And he was 19. And that's when he was just coming up and becoming the guy we know now. Yeah. We played him because he played with Strick, I think. And we beat them in, I don't know if it was alternate shot or best ball before that too. man i'm sure that yeah i was wondering i was wondering i was wondering how that got because you were playing

incredible at that time and he's the young gun coming out i didn't know if like they threw him out and they're like i want him or it was vice versa yeah so that was early in the week but i like that could have punched me right back in the face pretty easily but like i was playing good kidding i didn't want you assholes yeah well i'm sure obviously that's a highlight of your career but we got to get to the olympics because your man sitting over here on the couch mm-hmm the wizard ray Whitney filled in for your normal guy Julian Chardot, make the 2016 Olympic team Rio. What was

that whole experience like? You got to be, you were the first group off because technically Canada was the defending champion from 1904. Right. So they put it all on George Lions. George Lyons. Very well done. I just wonder if you knew that. But what was the whole Olympic experience like? I mean, for golf that's not many golfers, we know, definitely no golfers we know

have got to experience that. Yeah, the one thing that people ask me that all the time. The main thing that I remember from that week was how much it meant to everybody there. Like, I mean, we were, we're pretty fortunate as professional golfers that if we didn't play well, I went to Greensboro the next week and played for an $8 million purse. You know what I mean? Like, it was, we, some of the people, like, we met, like, these, like, field hockey players and, like, boxers and all these and like they're literally living three of them in a you know an apartment in

calgary and they're just trying to make ends meet for four years to peak and they've this is what they've worked their bags off for for so long and so we walked in the opening ceremonies and the emotion that was pouring out of all the other athletes that's the one thing that i'll always remember and like makes my hair stand up on end just like right now just thinking about it because it was like how important it was and it was like don't get me wrong like i was super super proud to be there with Hearn. But it was, it was just kind of different.

It's like, it's almost like the dream team like going. It's like, yeah, it's cool. They're in the Olympics. But like, the cool stories about the Olympics

are always like the gymnasts or the, you know, all the amateur, the track and field and that kind of thing. You could go out there and fall start and all that work for four years. Exactly. Yeah.

You could see it up the next week. Exactly. So like that's the one thing. But I mean, I had so much fun with Wiz. He was, in our little, uh,

high-rise kind of condo thing that the team Canada had he would always run down and grab a couple Molson Canadians for the boys and bring him back up because no one of the other athletes drink that's a good loop but honestly like from the fella we're playing golf and it's like I have beers after I play golf that's just kind of what you do yeah so tell us a little bit about the first hole though first hole Olympics you get the honor of teeing off first and maybe the caddy might have substitute caddy was that first day or the rookie day Oh, I thought it was here. No, but anyway, so we'll take a little pressure off.

But we're still in second Tying off. Like, I mean, like, we have a chance here. And we only need a top three here. Like, like, the goal is always to win, but like, man, like, there's been a lot of third place finishes where I'm like, fuck. But this wouldn't be a nice one to have, like, that bronze medal to chew on. But so anyways, we hit our T shots.

We, like, walk out. And it's raining. So he's got the ambien. And you know how, like, important it is to have a caddy in rain. and keep everything dry holding the and it's like it's hard work for a caddy in the rain so we get down there and I'm like okay we're like you know what do we got he's like oh we got like they're two 55 front edge it was par five and I'm like okay what where's the he's like where's the pin sheet like what do you mean where's the pin sheet he's like well where's the pin sheet he's like well

no I gave it to di and like he was he was going to like put the pins in the thing I'm like well where's the pin sheet right now like where is it I don't care what hole on this hole And he's like, dude, I don't know. So good thing, I have an unbelievable athlete on the bag. He full out sprints 300 yards all the way, 300 yards all the way back. And we were waiting for the green to clear anyway. So he got back just as it was kind of my turn to hit. And we got it all figured out.

That had to be such a cool. Did he take the back here for a minute? I'll be right back. Come on, Ray. You're better than that. He did a good job. He was like he was totally into it. And yeah, it was like I said,

He got our beer. Where does the Olympics rank in your career? It would probably be President's Cup Olympics. See, that's one thing. We talk about it all the time on our serious XM show about how the Olympics, like Dustin Johnson said, he's not going to go to the Olympics in Tokyo. And it's just, it's different for golf.

Because in their mind, I feel like in golfer's mind, let's peak four times a year and it's at the majors. Yeah. If you win the Olympics, I mean, that's awesome. That's badass. But at the same time, it doesn't, like, that's not what you're going to be remembered. for. Yeah, it's too bad. And it's like, man, I think, I really think that the,

what they should do is make like a team thing with the women. Like, I think that that's the way to like really make it intriguing and makes like scores count. Like maybe do a best ball, um, like a four team two person best ball one male score, one female score or something to make like a team medal. And this way you're still keeping your individual scores. So you can still go for the individual medal. But then you have like a, maybe you have a men's team and a mixed team or something like that. I think think that that's like the one thing they're kind of missing and you know like women's golf is like doing good right now and like that could be like the really thing to propel it's good point and i think

that they're just missing the boat there and i don't know who's in charge if it's the international olympic committee or the federation of tours or whoever is choosing the um but like to just have like i wouldn't say just another tournament because it's not it's the olympics um but like make it special. Make it something different. That's why New Orleans is so cool, because it's something different. That tournament was like, you go there and it was always like thunderstorms, and you sit in the fucking locker room for seven hours every day. And now it's fun. Guys want to go because it's a team event. It was a brilliant. I always say this. Like Justin Rose is a phenomenal player. He's going to be remembered more for winning the U.S. Open in the FedEx Cup than he is for

winning an Olympic gold medal. For sure. Yeah. And that's unfortunate. And that's unfortunate. Yeah. Most people could probably could name the silver and the bronze winner from from RIA. And that's just the RIA. And also because of the schedule the PJ tour has right now, there's no time off anyways. Like guys got to prioritize their stuff. And just because of the way things are, the majors and everything else, FedEx Cup, are going to take priority over that.

So yeah, there's got to be some. Like, I mean, if it was in Atlanta, like in 96, yeah. Oh, yeah, right. Cruise over. And then you guys had like Zika or whatever it was down there. Yeah, that's why Jules ended up not coming down because they were trying to get pregnant at the time. And that was like one of the things that Zika had, whatever. messed up pregnant.

But Steve Elknin and I sent you an amazing hype video before. That's right. I forgot about that. I still haven't. It's unbelievable. We might have been a little drunk when that happened. Oh, I forgot about that. Rube's text me.

She's like, hey, can you send Graham like a little good luck Olympics message? I'm like, well, I'm on about a 4-0 right now with Steve Elkton, but sure. It's a great video shot to you later. You got it. All right. Should we get to the emergency nine?

Let's do it. All right, you know all about this. I'm interested to see this first question. Let me lead this thing off because I think I got a good ender. All right. Movie being made about the life of Graham Ballet, you know the deal. Who you want playing you?

Well, originally when you guys first started doing this I thought Leonardo DiCaprio as but you know the bearded one when he won the or when he didn't said the bear yeah what movie was that I can't remember the remnant remnant yeah so I was thinking that one because with the big beard

the grizzly bear one yeah but someone told me once that I looked like a googly-eyed ugly Colin Farrell so that's exactly what I have written down googly eyeed I'm just kidding I had Hugh Jackman because he's got the beard and everything He's a little better looking and strong.

I was going to say, I'm nice to you. I like you. Yeah, that's a hell of a compliment. When we need like a witch doctor or something for this, I use Paul Walker. Oh. Yeah. And he can drive. He used to have that fast car.

You get away from anything with him on the lead. All right. All right. Number two. I don't know if a lot of people out there know this, but you two actually had a fallback plan if golf didn't work out. It was to be a rap career. That's right.

Well, it was mostly Drew. I was kind of good. Yeah, but you were in there. I was going to piggyback. I was going to piggyback on him. My ninth question. He was the front member of the band. Okay, well, let's just skip my question and save it for nine,

but I was going to say who was the more talented rapper between the two of me. Oh, Drew by a mile. I think we need to do the just do for this story and this group that we had formed up in Canada, so maybe we'll leave us to nine. But that's a good, this is, we're going to do a lot of prep for these shows. We don't talk a lot before. Well, we were supposed to talk, but I picked you up from the airport. All right, we have all right.

We'll do the next one then. Which cast member from Trailer Park Boys is most like you? Well, like I told you, you're J-Rock. Oh, 100%. I don't even know what trailer. 100%. And he's Randy. And he's Randy.

Every Canadian? No. He's Randy, but he's always got a shirt on. But if you took his shirt off, he'd be Randy. I'm not taking my shirt out. I have an image to uphold. Are you, Ricky? I most of the time have a cocktail in my hand.

Yeah, Julian? So I'd be Julian. There's all at all the time. And kind of muscled up, too. Yeah, and Julian. I love the name Julian because I respect that guy. Yeah. Okay.

So I'd be Julian. Fair enough. All right. You got to get on trailer park, boys. Yeah, I know, so you do. It's all time. All right, number four. We've played a lot of golf together.

Still to this day, do you think my ball didn't cross on number five in Houston? Oh, here we go. I don't. Dude, I beat. No, I, this was one of those weird. This was one of those weird, protect the field. Slash, this guy's one of my best buddies. What do I do in the moment I have his card?

It was not even close. Quick cookie, didn't cross. Snapbook. Well, first off, he got to ask. All I said was, hey, y'all think that crossed? I was just like, oh, my God, is he asking me this? That's awkward. That's awkward.

Yeah. It'd have been easy to say no to like 80% of the guys. Man, I don't think so. Graham's like, man, I mean, dude, I'm cold. Honestly, I don't think it crossed. Okay, I was just checking. I thought I'd ask. Tough T-shot that one.

I hate that hole. I know. And I'm a cutter that wins always off the left, water left. That T-shot's a nightmare. Yeah. So would you just repack it? I don't know. I'll probably went 50 yards forward.

You know what's worse? You could ask Jules about this next time you talk to him, but the 18th hole in that golf course. One year, I can't remember what year was. I'm like, I'm playing nice. I'm like in 11th going down the fairway. Oh, yeah. We're coming into the 72nd hole, quick hook.

and I'm about to read I'm like Jules throw me a ball he's like just chill it man let them go I'm like oh yeah good call I just I just kind of realize you're right here okay now that's my turn click click click they both hit down the fairway tee it up quick hook and I don't ever hook the ball like what is going on tee it up again quick hook I'm like oh my god I'm just like this is 70 second and like the yeah like you know like the cash register thing and like uh the eyes of tunes yeah but it was going the other way and it was like changes from like bills to coins to like nothing the debt and i was like oh my god so then i finally get it in the fairway and like jules like sets my bag down and i can't i can't even control myself and i like drop kick my bag and like my clubs fall out there's people everywhere i'm like making

a total mockery myself so then now i'm embarrassed and i grab myself i put all the clubs i put them back in i stand it up i'm like jesus christ here we go i knock it on three putt eleven 153rd. 11. We've both had a nice melt down there. I had it. That whole is so top, man. My rookie year, I birdied the fourth on Sunday to take a one-shot lead.

I remember. I hit it in every bunker, hit it in every shit. Another embarrassing moment. I said every bunker. Took my lob wedge out. Tomahawked it at my bag. Snapsed my driver in half on the 8thall. And not, of course, I need driver everywhere.

I was having it three wood the whole way around. On 18, it said in the wind. I aimed in the middle of the gallery. 18 and I did three wood over there. Mitch, Knox was caddying for me. When the driver's tab, he goes, well, that was fucking stupid.

I'm like, yep, we got a problem. Any other club. Any other club? I need my dog eye here. That's awesome. Houston, I hate that place. Okay, I think this is a good story. Which performance is more impressive?

Your 2013 President's Cup or the karaoke performance you witnessed in Japan with Mark Leashman and Michael Sim. Oh, Michael Sim, sweet. Oh, man. Sweet. He's a, can't miss. I'm sure he is still good. Yeah, so we're there for the Four Nations Cup just outside of Tokyo.

This was so much fun. It was Canada. This is an amateur event. Canada, New Zealand, Japan, and, who am I missing? Oh, Australia. So I played leash, actually, in the singles. I chunked a, like, 52-degree wedge on the 18th hole. He beamed by one.

That still stings, too. I still remember that shot. Then we went out. But the best thing about Canadians and Australians, aliens is no matter what we just like to celebrate you can celebrate a loss you can celebrate a win so we all went out together and uh yeah so we well karaoke is pretty big over there i don't know if you know i've been told yeah so those boys were having fun and they were deep and they were uh they were singing and having fun i don't know like i don't know i don't want to throw anyone under

the bus but it was a pretty good time you don't have the name a name but there was a specific have been somebody who actually like farted into the mic and cleared the entire play out. Beautiful. A song while the words are going and just said, nah, no words. It just blew the whole joint out.

Incredible. We'll just let everybody out there. They can Google it. Who knows. Yeah. All right. Number six. Tour players spend a lot of time together.

You know, they've been known to mess with each other a little bit. What's the best prank you've ever been involved with on the PJ tour? Oh, God. Does he just want to tone it a whole story? you again. Just hey, feed me. How many times,

okay, this is the last time this story even needs to be told. But maybe they haven't heard it. Well, maybe not from my perspective. Here we go. Go into the whole thing. Well, I mean, we could be here for a long time, but do you want the nuts and bolts?

Just give it to them. How do you want to go. Well, so Bryce and Deschambo had just had his amazing run at the Masters when he was an amateur. And he turned pro the next week. Huma signed him. And so, And so the locker rooms are all alphabetical.

So Deschambeau is beside Delette. Every single week we're beside each other. And you love it. So this was the first week, though. So I'm like, okay, whatever. Like he's getting in there's like boxes of stuff. I'm like, okay, well, this is cool. And then Puma's like, hey, can you tweet out a thing?

Welcome into the family. And it said cap it like Brison because he wears that cap. So I'm like, hey, welcome to the family at Bryson D. Hashtag cap it like Bryson. So then, and this is on like Monday. So then it's like Tuesday Well even like Monday I'm like man like What's with all these boxes like I mean like I get close from Puma and stuff

But it's like every once in a while But he's new to the program or whatever Maybe they're just like feeling so then it was like the next day was the same thing I can't open my locker and I'm starting to get kind of mad I'm like what is going on so I start throwing his shit up on top I'm like what is going on here so I tell Cole I think we played a practice And I'm like man this kid he's like I know he's a hell of a player But he's wearing me out with all these

Like two days. He's getting. So fast forward now and he's playing nice. And I was actually playing nice too. We're like in the couple last groups or whatever, something like that on like Saturday. But so I get to my lock. I don't know if it was Saturday morning or Sunday morning.

Oh, that's the thing I'm not supposed to do. You're fine. You've done ground. I'll figure it out. And there's one of those, you know, those tartan, like they wear the tartan jacket. So there's one of those tartan hats in my locker. And there's a little yellow sticky tag or sticky note on there.

And it says on there, two gram. Or no, no, it was written on the on the hat. Yeah. Two gram, best of luck with your career. Bryce and Deschambeau. I'm like with my career. Like I know that his career is way better than mine now. But you just got here.

At the time, he's been pro for a minute. Yeah. And this is like my fourth year on tour or something. I'm like, oh my God. I'm like, now I'm losing it. And I storm out to the range. And were you playing good too or whatever? So I get out there and I'm like, Colt, you wouldn't fucking believe what just happened.

I went into my locker and this kid, this rookie or whatever, I'm like, he's got this hat and he's signed it best of luck in your career. Bryce and Deschambo, I'm like, can you believe that? And he's like, no, an eight miles catting for him. He's like, dude, that's messed up. So I like go over. I started warming up and it's like, it's still just bugging me. And I'm like playing good.

I'm in like the second or third to last group on Sunday. I'm like, why I got to get over this right now? So I went over to Colton. I'm like, dude, I think someone's messing with me. And I just see him and like, like, A Mile about to blow up. I'm like, you're fucking messing with me. It's you. And they couldn't, they couldn't stop laughing.

But he had had. Bryson didn't know about that. No, Bryce. I told him in Vegas. I told him in Vegas one night. And he laughed his ass off. He thought it was hilarious. This grams thrown around.

36 dollars on the night out of the locker. Yeah. So he sent John to the merchandise tent to buy one of those tartan hats and put in my lock. Who signed it? You mimic the signature? I just made it look. I mean, he didn't know what price and signature would like. Oh, give him credit out.

That was a pretty good one. And yeah, he actually came up to me in Vegas on the range that day. He's like, or the next day. He's like, dude, I didn't know about this story. That's pretty fun. Oh, dude, we're totally cool. Try to get some more gears there next week. Yeah, maybe take care of those boxes next time.

Sorry, Graham. Oh, God, that's a good story. All right, next one. This is perfect since he's a lot. in the building. Which Canadian hockey player would you would make a better prime minister of Canada, Ray Whitney or Mike Commodore. Ooh. Oh, hey, you haven't seen this. Check us up. Oh, God. Yeah. Who doesn't vote for that? But by the way. See that? Yeah, show that to the cam. He's had this. I've had this shirt now.

He wants you to pack your shit. That's a good campaign slogan. I literally have had this shirt for probably four years when he started doing this during trade the trade deadline or whatever I'm like when am I going to wear this I'm like I can't get rid of it because there's going to be an opportunity and this is that his episode is hilarious man I'd heard every single one of those stories and I was crying laughing in my car what I was watching the first time I ever met him was with you we played TPC sawgrass just or TPC Scottsdale just the three of us yeah he was so quiet I was like who the hell is this guy yeah he's a pretty reserved now look at him okay well Yeah, who's running the country?

Okay. I could make a case for both guys. I think Ray has the intelligence, the calmness, the demeanor. To really... Interesting. Never... To really just... To get the country behind them, you know what I mean?

So if you want that kind of leader, you go with Ray. If you want the... Don't give a fuck kind of guy and like, hey, this is what we're doing. If you don't like it, move out of Canada. Pack your shit. Yeah. Then they don't... then it's calming.

Both are great choices. You can't miss. All right. Number eight, obviously, grew up being a hockey player. If you could get in an old school hockey fight, drop the gloves, pull the other person's sweater over their head, any PJ tour player, who would it be? No boy. I'm going to start a beef right now.

Just go ahead and say it. Don't look at me. He's not a BJ tour player. No look his sleeve. I've had a couple run-ins with Patrick Reed. It would probably be him. Oh, interesting. Kind of figure that was going to be the other.

Hey, we're all being honest. Yeah, I don't think you're the only one. You think you take them? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. That's awesome. Okay. I was wondering if there was going to be a no comment or if you were going to throw it out there.

I was leaning towards no comment, but I like that. Fair. Fair. All right, sweater over the head. Get me in trouble. Good luck, bud. No, I ain't going to get you in trouble. Graham will be back soon.

Watch her back. All right. All right, last one. This is where we get to it. All right, I coot teased it a little bit. You were part of an Uber talented rap group, possibly couldn't take it could have taken over the music industry is that your biggest regret in life you didn't pursue that music career let's talk about the group it wasn't it wasn't even like you quit

you were a lead man like i said i was like biance i just kind of outgrew the group dude honestly i was like who are these the destiny's child i have not heard that you were the one that quit no i never quit who so was you two yeah we were well it was mostly him well barrett had a couple Barrett was like a producer. He made the beats. That's probably why we didn't make it. Well, I've heard a few of the songs, and I've really been begging a lot of people. I've been begging a lot of people to get me the CDs.

They're buried, but they're gone. Don't ever even. And like mine were, like, I mean, he actually put out of the good music. Mine were stupid. Give us a little, I know you remember some of the. Well, I don't want to go him under the bus. I can't do it. Well, they're all pretty bad.

I don't, I honestly don't even know. I've made so many platinum hits, dude. But dude, do you remember in C-Fort? So we got this. When you were in your hot streak, when you were debating, quitting, and then caught fire. You bought the laptop on the way over there. And you're like, dude, this has a thing called garage band. We can record songs.

Like, holy shit, no way. Dude, we're in Canada. We'd go to C-Fort. There's nothing to do. We were playing that golf tournament over there. And it was like Thursday or Friday after the round. Typically, you eat lunch, go hit some balls, maybe practice. I probably shot 74 like I normally do.

And we're all kind of looking at each other on the putting. I'm like, you want to go make a lot? want to go make an album? And they're like, yep. And we all just packed our shit up and went to our billets house. He was amazing. Honestly, well,

you've heard him freestyle. You should be freestyling on here once in a while. I believe you actually one day, you gave me a ride home. This was six, seven years ago. And you actually played me. You had some.

It was probably Dre. Dre might have had some. I think I don't have any. I'm going to get to the fun. He is sworn to like an NDA and punishable by death. Yeah, no, it's probably Dre. I don't have any more. I wish that I did.

Scorpion Queen. That was my favorite one. Scorpion queen, yes. All right. This has been great, dude. We love Grandde-Lat, dude. Wish you the best of luck in your career. Oh, Graham, you're the best.

Thank you, so much. I love you guys. I love you guys. Scorpion queen. Erase that shit. All right, well, that was Graham Delette on this week's golf sub-barsely's always fun sitting down. Graham, he's open. He's honest.

He likes to get amongst it just like we do. A hundred percent. I'm glad that interview ended when it did. We're treading dangerously close to getting more in depth into the bomb squad and our rap group there. in Canada, so that thing had to end when it did. But man, like, what a cool conversation, Cole. You know, Graham's not the first guy to struggle around the greens and with the chipper and things like that. But he's one of the first guys I can remember to really go in depth about it and the way he's struggled and what he's doing to, like, overcoming. He's an open book about it,

which is pretty rare in the golf world when you're struggling with something. Yeah, I agree. He definitely didn't have to be as open with it as he was, but, you know, he chose to be. I mentioned Scott Van Pelt. it up and put it on on his sports center episode that night. It's cool to see. It's because, you know, I think a lot of people at home struggle with certain parts of their life, their game and all this. And here's a guy who's playing golf for a living and, you know, struggles. And it's embarrassing.

But he was very, very open about it. But he's always been one of my favorite dudes. We meant to team up several times in New Orleans. Injuries held us back from doing that. That's something I'm always going to regret not doing throughout my career. But he was also a victim of one of my favorite pranks on the PGA tour and just an all-round great dude. I mean, he's the guy that just, he's really good at golf. He's incredibly good at golf.

But at the end of the day, he's a normal dude that she wants to go down and have a beer and watch some football at the end of the day. Yeah, that prank, the prank down there in Arboretown was incredible. And I think another cool thing about Graham is like he elevated himself into one of the top players in the world. He's playing on the President's Cup. He's playing in the Olympics and things like that. But I can distinctly remember that time when we were in Canada and he was sitting there debating like, do I even continue playing golf anymore? Is this it? Is it over?

And he crawled all the way from that. And in a very quick span, too, a couple of, you know, just a handful of months later, his life looked completely different. And that's how close it can be for guys. You can be one minute, be thinking about giving the game up. And the next thing you know, fast forward a couple years. And you're representing, you know, the internationals on the President's Cup. Yeah, he's got a great story.

Hopefully he can come back from injury and continue to play some great golf. So, you definitely cut into this lead a little bit here this past week at the Wells Fargo. I think ever since I've been on the road, I've been over-analyzing things. I'm up close and personal to these guys every day. I've watched them on the range. I see guys hitting balls, you know, hitting certain jobs. I'm like, oh, I start overthinking things a little bit. My picks have gone kind of south.

I've missed two cuts in a row where you had Victor Hovlin last week, who you made up some nice ground with a little tied for third, I believe. Yeah, I've been waiting on Vicki Boy for a while. This felt like a good golf course to do it. But I've had some misfires in the past, too. But, yeah, I just feel like Tito Green. that dude's so solid. It was nice to see him to actually predict one correctly. So this thing's this thing's cozy and up a little bit. It's getting a little bit tighter. Producer Mark,

where do we stand on the money right now? Yeah, I wouldn't call it snug just yet. More snug. You're getting there. A significant chunk came out to the tune of $477,900 for Mr. Hovlin. And that cuts your lead to, Colt, still in the lead with $325,556. up on the Sleuzen. That's pretty snug. That's pretty snug in this world. Yeah, it's pretty easy when you miss two cuts in a row. I mean, my guy Max Homo only missed the cut by nine.

I mean, I was just, I was right there. But, you know, it's all right. He didn't get it done, but I'm looking to bounce back this week. We got the AT&T, Byron Nelson championship tournament. It's very special to me. I'll be on the call here. I'm here right now at the hotel, just down the road from TPC Craig Ranch. We got a new venue.

So not a whole lot of course history this week. for the guys. You have the honors. So he's who you going with? Yeah, because of that, because there is no course history here, I'm going to go with a local fella. I've been saving him for a bit. Scotty Sheffler. He's going off at 33 to 1. So like you said, we can't go back and look at past results. But I'm sure Scotty has played TBC Craig Ranch a number of times in his day. Hits it high, hits it hard. He can cover a lot of these fairway bunkers out there that some of the longer hitters can. And when you look at it, when we're going into places

that the PJ Tour hasn't been before, I like guys who have at least played it some. I compare this to Jason Cochrack at the CJ Cup at Shadow Creek, right? They'd never been there before, but Cochrak has a lot of experience around that place, and it ended up paying off for him. So I'll go with local boy, Scotty Sheffler, 33 to 1. All right, I like that pick. Should be very dangerous around this place coming off a week off. All right, I'm going to with some heat this week.

I think this guy's going to be fired up to play. I've been debating whether or not I save him for later on in the year, but I think with strategy-wise, I think this is the time. Coming off a miscut last week, he's going to be fired up, pissed off, ready to play some good golf. These fairways are big. He likes to send that driver. The greens are very easy to read, and he's a great putter. I think John Rom picks up a victory this week. There you go. First pick for the Spaniard this year. We've been jockeying and playing chess figuring out where to use him. I mean, there's no bad week to use John, in my opinion, and you get a pissed off Spaniard, you get a dangerous Spaniard.

So yeah, coming off a miscutt, wouldn't shock me at all. I'm still saving him. Don't know where to use him yet, but this might be a week where I got to dodge some bullets. All right. Well, that's who we're going with this week. Scottie Sheffler and John Rom. Next week, we got a guy that's going to be a very popular pick come the summer season. He absolutely is one of the most consistent guys on the PGA tour. By far, the nicest guy I think we've ever sat down with on golf subpar. Webb Simpson will be joining us. We shot this thing in Charlotte just down the road from his house, and it was a lot of fun, Slease. Yeah, we typically like to do our due diligence and reach out to some friends, get some funny stories, maybe something a little bit embarrassing. think web is clean as a whistle there is not anything you can find there would have had better luck

digging up dirt on mother teresa than we would have had getting something on web simpson yeah i love it he is uh he is sneaky funny too i think y'all are going to enjoy it hope everyone has a great week we'll talk to you on next week's golf subpar