Subpar - Steve Elkington Interview: The origins of his smooth swing, his pick for best player in the world

Episode Date: January 19, 2021

On this week's episode of GOLF's Subpar, ten-time PGA Tour Winner Steve Elkington joins former PGA Tour pro Colt Knost and his close friend and on course rival Drew Stoltz for an exclusive, in-studio, interview. The winner of the 1995 PGA Championship talks his three National Championships at the University of Houston, the origins of his famously smooth swing, and why John Daly ended up playing rugby at a bar in South Africa.

Hello world. Welcome to another week of golf subpar, Colt Nost and Drew Stoltz. Sleys, what a week we have in store. First off, we've got to give a big shout out to Kevin Nha on picking up his fifth PGA tour victory down at the Sony Open. What an incredible performance. Yeah, four wins in his last 55 starts for a guy that's not one of the younger guys on the PJ tour. I don't know if something's gotten drastically better in his game. We talked to his coach Drew Stuckled today on the radio or if it's just a matter like, hey, I got one. Now I start believing I can win a little bit more. But whatever he's doing, I think he's up to 23rd in the world right now.

As long as he's got that putter, he can be dangerous anywhere. Yes, the man can absolutely roll it, but for me, Slees, I don't know if you can tell, my voice might sound just a little bit, a little frogier than normal, not the grass. You got that gravelly tone that all the singers strive for. I know, it really sucks, but you know what? Didn't suck.

My weekend, I spent the week up at Shadow Creek. It's played three days there for our good buddy Joe Scobberant's 40th birthday, and I'm playing a little hurt today, but it's always good to be with you. That's what you do. Play through the pain. If you're ever going to record a solo album, I think now it would be the time. You got that gravel, like I said.

But as I've said on this show, many a time, many of the times, my favorite place on the planet. Got to spend three days there this week playing with our guy, Monty Montgomery. All the boys out of Shadow just had an absolute blast. The weather was perfect. I didn't want to leave. But my liver and my brain really told me I had to get out of there. Yeah, I don't know how you do these like three-day excursions to Vegas. I'm more one night, send it all the way, fly home early, but don't go to bed, come home.

Everybody's happy. You got a chance of coming out. out of there with some money you go three days i don't have a really good track record winning any cash but the the three-night trip to Vegas that's um that takes some heart you're gutting it out today dude and i respect i tell you what i mean when you go up to shadow and and you play with monte and the boys and they just dump off money to you it's hard to leave it's more like a business trip than it is anything with a side of some entertainment in the evening times yeah you go up there guys the offering to play you got to go i'm like i can't afford not to stay course dude business decision i you're

up there playing i don't know if you caught this this was this is the highlight of the week Friday afternoon during the coverage of the Sony. All of a sudden, my phone started blowing up, started getting some notifications, Twitter, Instagram, this type of thing. So just recently, we had a boy, Harry Higgs on. We got to spend a day with him, play some golf coming here, and had a great show with him. And we'd coined the term Big Beautiful for him, right?

That was the nickname. That was the one we're running with. Well, on Friday of the coverage, Justin Leonard, I think made it official, use it on coverage, talking about Harry Higgs, what a lovable guy is, all this stuff. And he says, and I'm hearing him referred to as Big Beautiful now. And so I started getting all these texts and stuff. So the nickname is, I believe it's officially official.

So the snowball should begin from now. That makes me very, very happy because he is the one and only, big, beautiful, but Justin Leonard from now on, you better give Colton Drew golf subpart podcast. Maybe some sort of a royalty from now on too. Exactly. We discuss that. But we got some very, very good news for y'all. Before we get to our guest, coming up after the interview, our gambling picks are going to be back.

We decided to tweak it a little bit this year. And if you want to maybe give us your opinion, if you don't like what we're going to do, let us know. send us a little message on Instagram, Twitter, whatever you want to do. But this year, we're going to do a Survivor, one and done pool. So once you pick a guy, you can't use them the rest of the year. We're going to add up all the money. At the end of the year, that's going to be the winner.

We're going to cut it off at the BMW Championship, which is a week before the Tour Championship, because the money there gets a little bit out of hand, obviously, and the strokes are a little different. But one and done, so you've got to be very strategic here, Sleas. Got to save your big dogs for the big events, WGCs, the players, the majors, obviously. So you've got to be very strategic. Do your homework. one and done easy thing to keep traps up very easy thing to calculate at the end of the year there'll be no more running into any weird stuff for in the fed and then we'll do a separate thing for the fed we'll figure out some sort of little micro gambling thing too also i need to be paid on the caddy round you do need to throw on the bib loop it for the kid one time i'll keep it clean for you not a lot of balls in the des but that needs fast money fast pay pass friends well you're no you're so busy nowadays i mean you hardly play golf anymore it's true it's a good point i'll make an exception for you though if you get out there reading some greens for the kid we are we all all going to give y'all like some favorites and some dark horses so y'all can make some money out there

and really get amongst it but right now we got to get to our interview our guy steve elkington we did it we did it over zoom which obviously we like being in studio with our guys a little better but steve elginton did not disappoint no man one of the better we've been lucky lately between harry and commie and some of these guys really good storytellers and elk is a guy that's got them going way back so we dug into a few of those too and just a guy that i mean knows as much about the game of golf is pretty much anyone out there and very opinionated too, which is always good to have. He's not afraid to, you know, rock the boat a little bit. No, he just lets it fly. He goes. But let's get to it. Here's Steve Elkinton on Golf Subpar. All right. Our next guest is one of the silkiest swingers of the

golf club to ever play the game. He is a two-time players champion, a major champion at the 1995 PJ Championship. And not only that, he is the artist who created the beautiful faces on our golf subpar logo. Steve Elkington is in the house. How you doing there, Sleys? You had a big day yesterday. I know Colts sitting back there too. Yeah, man. Coming off the win, the shot heard round the world, walk off double eagle from my boy, Andreas Gonzalez.

I mean, never would you hear about it. You know more golf than anybody on here. Are you ever heard of a walk off double legal in your life? You know what? I got to tell you this story because it just hit me. When I played the champions tour, I was lucky enough to play with this young girl up in, at the Pebble Beach tournament,

you know, the equivalent, the Nature Valley. And we were off the back night at Pebble Beach on the last round. We had a great round, finished on the ninth hole. We were told that we think we've won the tournament. So we're all the way back to the 18th hole. John Cook was leading the tournament. We were in the grandstands behind 18,

waiting for Cook to finish, and we thought we had won the tournament. Well, one of the young junior players that was playing in Cook's group, hooked his drive into the water on 18, hit a rock, bounce back out into the fairway. We didn't see this, of course. But then we saw a ball land on the green

and go into the hole. We thought, that's the coolest eagle I've ever seen. Then someone said, no, that's some guy that's made a double eagle. That was to beat us and my girl in the Nature Valley Senior Tour events.

The only double eagle ever in the history of Pebble Beach on the last hole to win a tournament. Wow. Oh, my God. I just thought of that. I should have thought of that last night, Sleece, but that happened to us. And I spent the next two hours with the young girl telling them it was okay,

it's okay. We finished second. Wait a little. That's unreal. Yeah, off the rocks too. Drey's was a perfect shot, though. We'll move that one above. That's incredible.

Thank you so much for joining us. I know this is going to be a lot of fun. And we kind of want to go back to some of your younger days to start out. You grew up in Australia, obviously, but you ended up coming over to the United States and attending the University of Houston where your team was just an absolute joke. You won three national titles. First off, I want to know, the only year you didn't win was 1983.

What the hell happened in 1983? 1983 was in San Joaquin Valley in Fresno and Oklahoma State, Verplank, Tommy Moore, Tracy Phillips, may have even been Bob Tway hanging around at the end there. They were good too. They were in a playoff, I think, with Texas, and we finished third, I think, that year. But Billy Ray must have played bad because certainly. But you mentioned Billy Ray Brown. Who else was on that team while you were at school?

Because, I mean, three out of four years, that's incredible. Yeah, 82 team. Billy Ray Brown won the freshman. He and I were the only two freshmen that came in that year. We came in with two other freshmen on the basketball team, Clyde Drexler and Akima Lange one, lived two rooms down from us. And years later, we used to let them come down to our room.

We'd let them try our rings on because they couldn't get one, you know. but we put the rings on. And then three more doors down was Carl Lewis, who was eight-time Olympic gold medal champion at the time. So it was pretty interesting around our dorm. Even though we had the most rings, we were by far the not the best athletes. But Billy Tootin was the Publinks champion.

Dave Tennis was on that team. Different teams, Mark Fuller was our captain. He was a really good player. Carlos Espinon. You should know him, Colt, do you? Mark Pendary's was on one of those teams. Trey Tynet. Billy Ray and I were obviously on every one of those teams,

but there was just a nice combination of guys coming in and out where, I don't know, I mean, looking back, it's pretty freaky, so we did win three, but obviously we were pretty stout. That's incredible. Yeah, we're on a team like that, Elk, that's so stacked and you're winning three out of four. Does your focus almost come when you should,

up to a tournament, like be the low guy, beat the other guys on my team. If I'm the low guy on my team, the chances are I'm going to win the tournament or finish pretty damn high. Well, Oklahoma State were our big competition. So they had Willie Wood, Tommy Moore, Scott Bird playing, Andy Diller. They were all short guys. And we were all six-two, you know. So we used to call them midgets and talk shit to them. We'd tell them how short they were. And we used to wear Houston across our back like a soccer team. And we used to have the number of what number we were playing. So we were the only team that had had the name

across the back of our thing. And it used to all freak them out when we come out there. You know, imagine golf back in the 80s with a guy says, Houston across the back. So we'd wear them on Sundays. But, you know, growing up, I'm from a town called Wagga Wagga, which when people ask me where Wagga Wagga is, I always tell them that it's only six miles from Gumley, Gumley.

And, you know, Wager is an Aboriginal term, which means the river forks on one side of the town. And Wager means it reforks on the other side of the town. So small town, 30, 40,000 people, one golf course out of town, one in town. But super little golf course, no driving range. Just right after school, went and played golf every day. And I'm so thankful, I was having a conversation with a bunch of people about, US Open was here at Champions recently, and we're talking about track man,

and what would you have done if you had track man, and it was very interesting talking about all that, but I'm really thankful that I finished up just playing golf every day. Yeah, I mean, you had an incredible career, but you were known for how amazing and how beautiful your golf swing was. Was that something you were born with?

Was it natural God-given talent, or is that something you developed over time? you know, I don't think, I used to look at other swings, you know, I used to be, like, my eye would go to different swings, and I'm sure yours did too. You know, I used to think Paul Aisinger had a good swing with a strong grip, and I used to think, you know, Cal Pete, different things. So I think for me, I had a good rhythm. I have really long arms. If I had dress dress sleeves, I mean, you couldn't wear my shirt, Colt. I have 39-inch in-sleeam.

So my swing is, you know, smooth, but I got long arms. But I think the positions of my swing were good, and the rhythm of it was good, kind of like Payne Stewart. So I think that's why people were attracted to looking at my swing, although I always was working on it, but I always knew what the rhythm was of it. I always knew how to smooth it out. In other words, I never worried too much about the positions of my swing.

I worry more about how it felt like to me with the rhythm of it. Well, Elk, yours is one of the swings that people would bring up in terms of like prettiest golf swings that they've ever seen. Who, in your opinion, if you can't name yourself, who's a guy that when you watched him swing, you like that action more than anything?

Out of the older era, I used to look at Weisskoff because he was the same height as me. Bruce Devlin was same. He was from my part of Australia. He used to watch that. My favorite player was Jack Nicholas, but, you know, the Bodden player, is now, you know, there's a bunch of them, but I like Justin Thomas's swing because he's,

you know, for years, I'm not referring to cold here, but for years we, on tour, we were trying to get the left arm a little bit lower, but now, you know, Justin Thomas is back up here, up high with a lot of width and he's swing. I like that, like Moracaro, Shalfle, I mean, there's some guys that, you know, put the club in the slot on both sides of it. And, you know, I'm just happy to see the swing plane sort of the swing plane groupies have gone away. It's gone back to where it's all about the computer and it's about driving the ball far. I mean, nobody's looking at Bryce and D. Jambos plane. They're not looking at Justin Thomas's plane.

They're not looking at Tiger Woods's plane. You know, it's different talk now. Yeah, there's no doubt about that. but I want to stick in your era a little bit because I think your era much different than nowadays, there was a lot more personality back then. There was a lot of characters out there. Who were some of the guys you enjoyed sitting around with having a beer?

Maybe during a rain delay, you always went and sat with them to share stories with. I was lucky. I was talking on my show this morning about the Hawaiian Open, and I remember going to the Hawaiian Open in 1987, and I was walking, you know, to the golf course because I was staying just down the street. and the wind was blowing 30, 35 miles or now, and I was thinking, I'm just not going to be able to play this golf course.

It's just blowing so hard. And I look at the scoreboard right there, the ninth green, as you know, is right there next to the clubhouse. And Bobby Clampett and Tom Watson were coming through the turn. It was blowing 40. And they were both six under through eight holes. And I thought, what am I doing?

What am I doing out here? I can't play out here. This is ridiculous. know, and I remember seeing Ray Floyd there with all these handmade clothes with extra stitching down the side, Cal Pete was there, Lanny Watkins was there, you know, they all had all the gear and they had all this charisma and style, you know, and it was just, it was just a different era, you know, and not, it's not, there's good players around now, it's just different, but, you know, answer your question, you know, it was always going to sit not in amongst those,

somewhere near Tom Watson or Lenny Watkins or Tom Weiskoff, Lee Trevino, it was always good value. You know, any of those old school guys was great fun to listen to. Yeah, and staying on that same topic, why do you think, like when I look back to your area, you guys like you, I mean, John Daly, Payne Stewart, you go back further, Trevino, these guys with big, bubbly personalities and we're always guys that people gravitated towards. is it tougher now for the modern day player to be more like that being that there is social media and like the media cancel culture and all the things that are going on? I think some guys are just scared to be the way they are off the golf course. It's certainly possible.

I mean, Justin Thomas had issue this weekend. You know, they want microphones on the players. And then he says something, which was he apologized for. Now they're going to probably have microphones off all the players. I mean, it's just, you know, it's back and forth. And, you know, Harris English, I was texting with his caddy last night, Eric Larson, and I was wishing that Harris English smiled more because he's such a good player. And I think I only saw one smile yesterday, and that was in the playoff when he made that eight-footer to win the win.

But, no, you know, I think there's plenty of personalities, Colt. What do you think? I mean, you just don't see it on the course anymore. Yeah, I think guys are kind of scared to show it a little bit, just because like what Drew was saying, I mean, you say one wrong thing, you get criticized and ridiculed from all angles, and it's kind of tough. I mean, that's one thing I've always, and one of my questions for you was these made for TV events. You know, we see the Tiger and Phil the match, and then we throw in Tom Brady and Peyton Manning, and yeah, they're okay to watch. But the Tiger and Phil match was made out to be this huge thing. You know, we're playing for $9 million. We're playing at Shadow Creek. We're going to have Tiger and Phil miced up, and then neither of them said anything. I mean, it was arguably the worst golf broadcast you could have. And I just think there's so much for these guys to lose. And my question to you was, do you think any of these made for TV events will ever live up to the hype nowadays?

I don't know. You know, it's a good question. I mean, the Tiger Phil match, we knew they weren't going to say that much. They needed someone like you guys, you know, commentating for them, but we knew it was going to extra holes. And Tiger, since when has Phil Mickelson ever given Tiger a four-footer or since when does Tiger ever missed a three-footer? and I got all these guys in the bar sitting on $1,000 bets,

and they're giving Puts from five feet. I mean, it was the biggest sham that ever was. I mean, who didn't know it was going under the lights on the, on the, on the, on the, on the, on the, three. I mean, the lights were already set up. So,

um, you know, I don't know. I get surprised sometimes, um, what, what people will watch and what, what the appetite is for golf. I mean,

the match with, uh, Phil and Barclay and all those guys, Steph Curry. I didn't really like it. It wasn't that good. The golf, the quality wasn't that good.

It's all sort of a little bit made up for it. But, you know, it's amazing what people are watch. Yeah, it's a tough, it's a pressure for those guys, too. And they're like, they're not entertainers, quote, unquote. You know what I mean? They're golfers. And all of a sudden, we mic them up and be funny and entertaining for four hours. It's like, dude, that's not what they're built to do.

They're built to hit good golf shots, not, you know, be Johnny Carson. It's a tough ass for those guys, I feel like. Yeah, I mean, Phil, you know, Phil Mickelson, you know, for years was the highest guy to play against. you know, he was tough and now he's kind of, you know, he's mellowed a lot since since he's gotten older. I don't know if it's these kids, Colt, you know, I don't know, but he's mellowed a lot since what he, what he used to be. Do you agree? Yeah, I feel like even kind of Tiger has too. I mean, they've kind of started to take the younger kids, you know, under their wing a little bit. You know, Tiger obviously knows he's at the end of his career and, you know, it was always all

golf all the time and now he's got a family. And we've actually kind of seen a different side of Tiger, I feel like we've seen a little bit of his personality, like his relationship with Tiger Woods, I mean, with Justin Thomas is awesome. And that's something we never got to see in the past. Kind of the same thing for Phil. I mean, Phil loves getting the young kids out on a Tuesday and going and playing a money game with him. Yeah, I mean, I love seeing Charlie Woods. I mean, I was with Tiger like two years ago with my son, Sam, at the player championship. And Sam even got to hit a couple of puts with the red dot putter, the Tiger's putter, you know, and was freaked out because that was Tiger, Sam watched Tiger since he was basically a little kid.

And I said, do your kids play? And he said, no, my kid play soccer. That was Tiger saying that about Charlie. And then two years later, obviously the golf bug has got Charlie and he's in there. But, you know, it's nice that Justin Thomas's father is working with Charlie. So now Tiger has to open up a little bit because now he's got to work with the Thomas family with his son. You know, just like I had to do with coaches with kids and football or basketball or whatever. You know, Tygo never was like that.

But once you get daughters and his daughter Sam, who I did see in the ropes at the father's son, once you get daughters old enough to tell their fathers the way they should act, fathers change their stuff pretty quick, I can promise you. Because the daughter will go, dad, you're an asshole. And if you don't ever say anything like that in front of me again, I'm going to disown you. That's what daughters say to you. sons don't worry. Sons don't worry about it.

Get ready, Sleys. It's going to happen to you. It's already happening, bud. She's softened me up. I'm losing my edge just like Tiger that I used to have that was so intimidating. I got a little 19-month-old, man. Oh,

I got one as a 25-year-old. It's a high school teacher. So if she goes, she tells 105 kids what to do every day, and then she comes home and tells the parents what to do every day, too. That's it. It ain't never going to change. Elk, you're one of the best storytellers, I think, ever in the golf world.

I've listened to so many of your interviews. I got to ask you to tell the stories. Since we were talking about personalities, John Daly was the name that came up. You guys were close buddies. We got to hear the story about the time. I think y'all were playing in the million dollar event in South Africa and ran up against, I think we're at the bar grabbing some drinks and ran up against some boys that wanted to throw some weight around. Yeah, well, that was, I'm glad you didn't prepare me for the show today.

So if I get prepared, I can't tell I kind of choke. If I'm not prepared, it's better. But we're in Sun City playing that million dollar. And it was my birthday, I think it was my birthday that day, Saturday night before the Sunday round. And I had this huge party that we all went to. And it was just like a rave party. The bandstand was in the middle. They bought all of us players up.

There's only 10 of us in the tournament. Daily's there. everybody's drinking heavy. Then we all go to the casino and it's probably midnight and I'm going down to hit the tap the kidney. And I see John Daly coming down the stairs and he sees me. He's wearing, you know, he's all Arkansas out. He's got his boots on.

He's got his whole show. And we're standing there on the landing of going down to the restroom and about four or five South African guys show up. And they go, hey, there's Elkington and Daly. I wonder if they know how to play rugby. And Daly's like, yeah, I'll try. I'll try it. And I said, JD, let's not, mate.

Come on. Let's get out of here. We're not going to play rugby with these guys. He goes, I'm already out. And he said, so Daly goes down into a three-point stance, you know, like he's playing for the hogs up in Fayetteville. And he comes out of his stance after these three guys. And they just absolutely poleaxed him into the wall behind it,

knocked a couple of paintings down. Data says, hang on, hang on, hang on. Elk, pull off my boots. He said, my feet was slipping. So he gets back in his three-point stance again. Mate, I thought they were going to, I thought he, I thought he might have seriously had a concussion or something after the first time I broke his shoulder.

That's how hard they hit him. Because these are big fellows. They don't care. Anyway, same deal later. Same deal. I hit him again. And I get John up. I sit him on the stairs.

And I said, mate, you're okay? He goes, oh, yeah, yeah, I'm fine. So I didn't see him. I left and then about two hours later, I was going to go home, I think, finally, and I went past the bar, and there's JD sitting there with just his socks on because he never got his boots back and he's still having a cocktail there in the morning. So, you know, that was, that was a big night, JD. We had some fun together. That guy. How good was he? I mean, you were right in the middle of his area. He won the, obviously, the PGA 91 and the, in the British in 95. I mean, how naturally talented and gifted was this guy? When he won the PGA at Crooked Stick, that was really the first time that we really kind of saw him, you know, for the four days.

We'd seen him come on because, you know, he got his tour card, but he wasn't in every week, so he didn't see him all the time. And when he first got there at Crooked Stick, there was these bunkers at that course that were out there about 270. So we were all laying up to them or maybe getting in them or whatever. But then when he started winning that tournament, we all started watching. He was flying these bunkers for like 20 yards, 30 yards,

flying at 290, 300 in the air back in whenever that was. And it was just, it was like something we'd never seen. And Squeaky was cadding for him, Nick Price's caddy. And it was just we knew that that side of the game was going to be taken care of with Squeaky caddy. And so we're like, this guy's going to win the tournament. It's going to be unbelievable because Squeaky's going to get him around. He's not going to be able to blow up.

He's not going to have, you know, it's going to be fine. And that was that. And then I remember the hype after that when J.D. had that white cobra driver that was made out of bulletproof material. You remember that? And we all wanted one because he was one of the few that had it. And when we got to Castle Pines where the air was thin, and JD was hitting these bombs.

I mean, it was like, we had never seen anything like it. And to go back to your question about how good was John, you know, he was one of these guys that just kept turning all the way. And he was able to keep his body without tilting back. And he could just stand there and just murder it from just standing flat footed. He could have shoes on or not shoes on. It was unreal to watch. And, you know, he could putty,

he had a strong grip with his putter. of how to drag stroke so he had a lot of he didn't have any hit any stroke and you know he you know people say he had a great hand but he just kept going with his wedges and and he would just and and you know he was just uh you know i was glad to see john daily and you know in all full flight because you know he had a lot of bad habits smoked a lot of sigs drank you know all this stuff but part of that was the reason he was so good because he had such a don't give a shit on one side of his game, made the other side keep going. He had the accelerator down all day, all day.

If he had stayed on, you said part of like, you know, his bad habits might have been part of the reason why he was so good and he still had a great career, won two major championships. Let's just say he stayed on the straight and narrow and didn't have some of the things happened that did in his career. What do you think his ceiling was? Is he a four-time major champion? Is he five?

Or what do you think that would have been? I don't know, because he only ever. I only ever had two chances, right? I mean, I don't think you had any other chances to win majors, but the two he did, he killed it. But when he beat Constantine Rocker in 95 at the, at the, was it 95? Yeah, 95. Yeah.

And Jack Nicholas was in the commentary box for the playoff. And they said, you know, John will probably lay it up on two. Nope, pulls out driver, smashes it down there almost to the green. Then they go over to 17. well he'll play up he'll play left here nope he's going over the over the over the hotel with the driver and you know well he'll lay up short of uh pop bunker nope he's not doing that he's flying it in there you know he just he just had amazing keep the hammer down i don't know what um he would have done i mean when you think about how many majors you could have won you know would have won

the hardest part about the majors is getting into contention, you know, guys like John Daley or, you know, I always, I've always said in my career, you know, Sean McKeel who, you know, won that and people take away from Sean McKeel. He had to, he burdened a ton of pressure for two days there at the end of that tournament, then hit it like that at the last hole. I mean, to me, that's as in, that's almost more impressive than a single, Tiger Woods major win because he had less to work with to get it done under the same amount of pressure. So, you know, to me, it's like an Olympic medal. That's really cool. And speaking of John Daly went in the British Open in 95, you finished six that year. 95 was an unbelievable year. You win the Varden Trophy, which for people that don't know, lowest scoring average. You won the PGA. I think you finished, you finished fifth at the Masters. So that was just an incredible year. Fifth, sixth, and I believe you won the Mercedes as well. By the way, do you know how much money you made that year, 95?

This is incredible. Maybe one mill. $1.2 million. You made less that year finishing fifth, sixth, and first, and having two wins at major championships than Harris English made in the century tournament champions. Isn't it crazy how the money's changed? Yeah. I think about the money changing, but then I also think that Jack Nicholas won 78 times

with 18 majors and he won $5 million career total. So I'm thankful that I won 15 million instead of five. But that night in the 95 British Open, if you ever saw that tape again of the back nine, I should have won that tournament. I had all the looks, but I kind of choked. I kind of couldn't get it there with my putter.

It was my first time to really feel like what it was like right in the top of the heat at the back nine of a major. And I was like, holy shit, this is a different deal. and I left that night my daughter was just born my wife and I we went and stayed at glenn eagles and I knew I knew in my heart right then that night that I would never win a major because I didn't i kind of choked and i'm like i can't do it i won't be able to do it can't do it too much pressure stop right there say that but like what how much different how much different is the pressure yeah yeah i just like i couldn't do it i won't be able to do it i won't be able to do it

And to finish that off was I got a sinus infection that week. So I stayed at the British show. I stayed at Glen Eagles for three weeks. And then my next tournament was the PGA. I flew straight to Riviera. So I was still playing good. All I had to do was take a little draw that I was working on at St. Andrews and turned it into a little fade.

And I figured that out in the beginning of the week. And I was into contention to get on Sunday. And it was the most, it was the luckiest break for me. because I was like, you know what? I just got over this other deal. I'm not doing that again. So I'm doing the John Daly. I'm keeping the hammer down all the way.

And I was thankful because of what happened to me three weeks before is what the reason I won that one. That was the end of that story. Yeah, you put final round 64 at Riviera. I mean, one of the greatest golf courses in the world. You end up beating Colin Montgomery in a playoff. But explain like why, how much different did you feel coming down the stretch of a regular PJ tour?

event versus a major championship? Oh, way different. Is it just because it's a major? And it's just, I think, I think the major, you know, a lot of people say, you know, you know, there's an old term, there's an old term. They say, you know, they can never take it away from it. Well, that's all, that's not a good term. When you win a major, it's not that they can't take it away from you. It means you're never going to be forgotten ever in the history of the world. You'll never, you'll always be remembered for winning a major. I mean, people to this day for me, they might forget where I won or what major it was, but they don't, they, they know that that guy over there, he was, he won a major championship. And that's, that's what carries it with you.

So, man, I knew, I knew, well, the British Open at St. Andrews was like too much almost overwhelming. I wanted to win at St. Andrews since I went there in 1979. Never won anything there, but I wanted to win there because it was so unreal. But as I just said, I had that opportunity in the very next event. to win the PGA. And, you know, at any point, I could have said, whoa, I need to back off here a little bit. This is, you know, I'm not going to, I'm ahead right now. I don't, maybe I just got to cruise here for a second.

But I couldn't do it at the PGA, man. Something inside me was like, I should hit over there, but I'm not. I'm hitting, I'm hitting right at it. Is that the nerves that you feel in a major and how much it changed for you from your first one to, you know, when you won at Riviera? Is that, is there any way to emulate that? or if you were talking to a guy that's going to be in that situation going for, or simply the only way to get used to that is by experiencing it and going through it?

The only way is experienced because you finish up with different kinds of nerves, right? There's nerves, there's first T nerves, like every person has a little bit, whether it's the tour or your club championship, you know, just anticipation you're going to get started. Almost everyone that's going to watch this will know that if they get nervous when they tee off by the time they get to the third hole, good, bad or indifferent, the nerves are gone, you're in the game.

And then there's different, there's other nerves. You might get a little nervy when you're trying to make a cut and you really, you know, you're a long way from home. And then there's nerves once you get in contention. But a lot of it has to do with how you're playing. I would say to myself in a regular event, usually when I was going to win, I was playing really well.

I mean, I wasn't fortunate enough to be able to play with a, you know, win with a sea game. So I would say to myself, hey, man, who's playing better than me? I'd look around and you trick yourself into saying, nobody, I'm hitting the straightest, I'm hitting the near the pin. Hey, let's do it. So, but to emulate a major, major champion's your pressure, no way. Can't be done.

Yeah, no doubt about that. Another place you had a ton of success at where I feel like the nerves are at probably the highest because the golf course can just make you panic is TPC Sawgrass and the players championship. You know, you won there twice, 91 and 97. And you're a guy that I always thought TPC Sawgrass set up perfect for me. You know, it's a golf course. You got it at the fair way. You can't leave it. And I called you the year before I played well there. And we went over every single hold of it together. And I'm not going to spill out any secrets because I don't want anybody else to know because I'm currently tied for the course record there. And I don't want anybody to break it. But what was it about

that place that set up so well? for you because that's the ultimate place I feel like you can choke. Oh, there's no doubt. I mean, you have to hit, I don't know, I think it's 11 shots across water. I mean, a lot of amateurs freak out when they got to hit one shot over water, but we got 11 and they got water on the other side and over and you've got to make it stay pin high. I think, you know, my natural ball flight is a medium trajectory height with a decent amount

of spin on it. so I could drive those balls in there and get the ball pin high. And, you know, there's a reason, you know, that hardly any of the big, strong hitters win at players because they either haven't mentally figured it out of how to make their ball get pin high or they just blow it off the tee all over the place. But as you know, I mean, you weren't a long hitter.

I mean, the course this week they're playing at Waili in Hawaii was a good course for you. Players' champions are good. course for you because it it's a medium range hitters course where the iron players is that's what it's all about over there this week getting irons on the green and making putts but yeah players championship's ridiculous i mean i when i won there in 1991 i was just a young guy and i'm paired with curtis strange you talk about tough pairings before tiger or anyone was around and by the way Curtis was the first guy to wore the red shirt he wore the red shirt when he

won the U.S. Open, his first U.S. Open at Oakland Hills, and then he won his second back-to-back U.S. Open at Oak Hills in Rochester wearing a red shirt. Well, in 1991, that was the year he won his second U.S. Open. I'm paired with him in the players championship, and he's wearing the red shirt. And that was pretty intimidating. But we got to 17 that day, and I was tired with the lead. Phil Blackmar was up in there, Fuzzy Zeller, and Aisinger in the lead group,

about three groups back. And we got to 17 and called, I don't know if you know this or not, but Bullet, Mike Addy has the Yaddy's book. Now they play the 17th hole at about 110. But that day was 146, okay,

with a 25 mile an hour into off the left. And Curtis was playing shitty. And he got, he 3016 and he had the honor. And he's going for a 79. I'm shooting four under. I'm three under for the day. I'm playing lights out.

And, you know, Curtis had that sort of Jimmy Ballard, sort of went soft on the back swing, and he could just kind of rock into it. So I told Bullitt, I said, just go over there and find out what he's hitting. That's all I want to know. And on 17, the winds gust and the flags going down and coming back like this.

And I'm thinking, you know, I'm going to hit 10 balls in the water. you know, if I hit one, if one goes in, I'm going to fill the lake. But everyone's going to fill the lake. Curtis Strange takes a six sign, and he hits a little chip six on, no spin, and lands it right on the green. And I'm like, and Bullet comes back. I said, Bullet, what he hit?

He goes, you don't want to know. And I said, what he hit? I said, I'm not telling you. Okay, what's the yardage? And he said, it's like 139 to the front. All right, give me that eight. So I hit the eight as hard as I could because I knew he had, I knew Curtis hit more than, more than eight.

Didn't know it was six though. I thought it was seven. And I smoked an eight and hit it into the bank and rolled down, back down to the front left edge. And I three putted it. And on the very next hole number 18, I hit it. It was dead into the wind. There was, I think there was a 99 out of the top hundred players playing that day.

And the reason I'm telling you that is the only guy that was, playing was Payne Stewart and Payne Stewart was injured and he was on the mic and I drove it up 18 and I got up there and Payne Stewart was standing by my ball and he's looking at it and I'm like what's he looking at and I'm in a divot I'm in a sandfield divot my ball's in it and pain stew it I could overhear him as I was coming up I kind of veered off he goes oh this is a really bad break Elkinen's hit a super drive up here but it's in a divot this is going to be nasty of shit it's a terrible this is a bad this is a horrible break This is horrible.

Anyway, I finish up hitting a miraculous three iron on the green and make the put for birdie, which finished up winning the tournament from Fuzzy and Azing because Blackmar filled the lake up on 17 behind me. He was up there. But any rate, that was a big deal because that carried a 10-year exemption. That was like money in the bank. How about three iron out of a sand filled? Yeah.

But I want you to go, because you mentioned the 10-year example. exemption. I heard a really good story about when you won the 97 players on the first tea with Scott Hoke. Y'all have an interesting interaction. Well, talking about nerves, I led the tournament from wire to wire. I led Thursday. Everyone's saying, good round elk, Friday. Hey, way to go. As you know, half the locker room's out. Saturday, I'm still going. I'm still going strong. I think I had a five-shot lead or something like that going, no, a four-shot lead going to Sunday. as you know, there's nobody around by the time I get to the locker room, everyone's out there, there's nobody around.

And NBC and everyone wanted to talk to me, my tea time was like 2.15, which is inscrusuating time to tee off on a Sunday, you know. And I'd be sitting there and, you know, I said to Bullitt, I said, I'm just going to swing in the room. I'm going to get to the course at 2.15 at the minimum. I'm teeing off at 2.30. Okay, pro, whatever.

You're the boss. So I pull into the park a lot at 2.15. Here's all the cameras waiting to talk to me. And I said, hey, I'm sorry, man. I'm late. I'm running late. So I went and hit about five balls. I was already ready to go.

I was ready to go at six in the morning. But I had to, you know. So I get to the first tee. And I'm pretty nervous. You know, I'm trying to kill energy. I, you know, here I am five shots ahead. There's only one thing that can go wrong. You know, it's windy.

You know, it's real windy. And Scott Hoke, I'm paired with Scott Hoke. Hoke and he comes over to me and he goes, you know, if I win the tournament today, he goes, I'll be exempt all the way until I'm 50. And I'm thinking, what the hell? He's 40 years old. And I look right at him. I said, well, this tournament, haven't got anything to do with you. I said, this is my tournament. Get the fuck away from me. And he snapped me out of whatever funk I was in because I went on and I blitzed it. I shot the low round of the day in the final group that day.

You'd think normally there'd be a 60-something, but I shot 68. And I was pissed at him the whole day, and I should have sent him a Christmas car, because that snapped me back into like, this guy thinks he's going to beat me. I can't believe it. This is bullshit. That's what I thought. I love that you snapped out like that on the first. Can you imagine that happening in today's world?

That would be like a huge story if Tiger did that to Phil or Justin Thomas did that to Ricky Fowler or something like that. Oh, exactly. No, it's all changed. As you know, they're playing now for points, you know. It's all about the points and it seems like the money gets pushed aside. The money's great. I mean, what's wrong? We're talking about money. I mean, I don't understand. That's what we play for. Yeah, that's why they're all doing it. That's why they switching clubs and doing everything. It's all capitalism. There ain't nothing wrong with talking about it. one of the best things about our sport is I can grow up in Waga. You can do your deal. Anyone can do it. Colt did his deal.

I knew Colt when he first was coming along when he was going to SMU. You don't have to have anyone tell you you're good to be on the golf tour. You can go and get your car and you can play. And you don't have to have a team. You don't have to have anything. You know, you're there. Boom. If you're good enough, you're in.

And then they pay it by how you play. Talking about TVC. sawgrass and courses like that. You mentioned Wai and, you know, colonial Harbor Town. Those are some of the shorter courses that favor Ironplay. Do you wish there seem to be very few of those on the PJ Tour anymore? Would you like to see a transition

and having some more of those courses where it's not just all about hitting seeds out there as far as you can hit it and finding it? You know, they're in a big battle right now of the distance, right? And then you see a guy who's one of the longest players on the whole two

who are Justin Thomas. And he lays up yesterday on 13, and they made a big deal that he can't hit his driver straight enough to play the 13th. Oh, I think it was 13. What is that path for up the hill? 14? 13 or 14, yeah, short one.

And the reason he did it is because he's such a good wedge player. I mean, they say, bomb and gouge. I don't even know what that means. I mean, Justin Thomas, you know, hits it long, and he's a good wedge player. I mean, I'd hate to play against that guy, you know, as good as he plays. But, you know, to answer your question,

Sleys, you know, Colonials, Westchester's, Wailia, courses, players' championship. The one great thing about our sport is it's not tennis. You don't stand and put your foot in a corner and bounce a ball three times and hit it to a guy who's standing in the same corner of he steps in Indian Wells. It's all different, Pebble Beach. So I'm all four different every week. That's what I'm for. do you like the way the game's going right now with all this distance biased and everything like that

or do you miss the artistry of the game because I know you were more of an artist. I had this conversation at the U.S. Women's Open talking about Trackman and people asked me if I would I use Trackman today and I said well of course I would if I if I knew that my swing was a degree or two off you know and I could measure it and it would tell me that I could get it back real quick. Now, the difference about Trackman with the girls that I saw is they don't know how to change their swings. They have to then get a coach, Sean Foley or who was there, have to come over and tell them how to move the swing to get it to do what they want. But I don't think Trackman is creating better players. It's telling them how fast they swing, but I think players lose their rhythm.

I don't, I don't, what was your question? I forgot your question. I went some way down. The distance. Do you like the way the game's going where it's all distance? I mean, like, for example, Bryson DeShambo at the Century Tournament of Champions was number one and strokes gained off the T,

but he was next to last in accuracy. So it basically shows you actually doesn't mean anything. Does that bother you at all? Oh, for sure. I mean, Jack Nicholas, you know, at the Memorial Tournament, he said on TV that, you know, I don't mind if Bryson hits it down there at 350, but he's got to hit it into the same area

as the guy that's hitting at 250. So there's got to be some design features where you can't just go over everything. I think what Bryson's doing is good for him. I don't think he proved it and he won the US Open. But he's playing a different game as far as the math of it. He wants to get closer to the green. He wants to get more looks from 20 feet.

he converts more than the average person from 20 feet. So he thinks getting closer to the green is better for him. Probably is. I mean, if I put a six iron shaft in my wedge, I could probably hit my six iron 160 yards, maybe, 150. So he's got a whole complete set built around his deal. Is he the best player out there? No, he's not the best player out there yet.

He's a lot. Probably the best player out there from top to bottom would be Justin Thomas, probably. When you put it all together, I mean, Roy McElroy is probably one of the most gifted. Dustin Johnson gifted. Rory's head is not always in there, in the game, as much as it was when he was younger.

I think anyone would say that. Dustin Johnson, I don't want to say he has an unorthodox action, but he does have a little bit of an unorthodox swing action. But he is, you know, he's made some huge upgrades in his game. I mean, he didn't use to putt as good as he used to, and he's got control of his wages. But I think when I think of a lifer, who's going to be on tour all the way through the seniors?

I think it's Justin Thomas. He plays a real conventional swing action. There's no stress on any piece of his body to swing it. Put's better than, you know, he used to. He's improved a lot. is improving. That's what I see. So if you're making a bet and you could have one guy,

who wins the most majors the next five years? Is it Justin Thomas for you? I think so. Over the other two I just said? Or throw in Bryson too? Yeah, whoever you want. Yeah, Justin Thomas. Yeah.

His dad's his coach. I mean, talk about a team. His team's pretty tight. Very, very tight. Yeah, he's got, he's one of those guys. I kind of think, like, John Rom, they have zero weaknesses. I think Rahm's another guy that's just he's got the all-around game.

Ram, you know, I was interested to watch Ram, you know, because I know how highly you guys talk about him and other people that I know at Silver Leaf and all that. Pat Perez talks real high on Ram. You know, I got to, I got to believe the guys that see it. Ram is going to have to deal with

the shortness of, the speed of his swing under pressure. I think he'll get it. But, you know, a lot of people say he has a short swing. And I say, I like his swing because basically he swings the club until he's as far away from the ball as he can. Now, if you think of John Daley, he's as far away, but then he comes back closer, closer, and then goes, he can do that. But Rahm is like a pulling a rubber band. He just goes to the far away from the ball he can and then comes back to it. So he can do that. But I did notice he has a little drop in it. and that's hurt him in places in majors, and I think you'll fix that.

Yeah, we rave about him. We get a chance to play a lot of golf, and just from a top to bottom person, it's hard to find a hole in that game right now. I don't know how the short scene translates to, you know, his later years, but right now, man, and when he gets going,

it's a thing of beauty out there. I remember seeing Rahm for the first time ever when he was playing at ASU, and I was at the waste management tournament and the PIM was back left on the 17th hole on a Friday, I think, and he drove it back there by the PIN. And I'm like, who hit that?

And some guy said, that chubby guy back there from ASU. And it was Rahm. I'm like, nobody else can reach the green that day. It was into the wind or something. And Rahm knocked it back there by the hole. He kind of reminds me of playing, like, I mean, I was lucky enough in Dallas to play golf. with Trevino when I was a lot younger.

And into the wind, I noticed when I play with John, like his ball just doesn't get affected by the win. Like, Lee was, as you can probably attest to, way better than I can. Into the win, Lee Trevino could hit it a lot further than he could downwind. Like downwind, I would out drive Levi a long ways. But into the wind, he hit it so solid and hit it through the wind so well, he could hit it up there a lot closer with me.

John Rom into the wind just absolutely smashes it. Yeah. I've never played with Ron, but like I said, I want to. and, you know, he looks like he's playing terrible and finish his fit. You know, Justin Thomas looked like he just chopped it all over the golf course at the masses this year and what he finished third or something. Those are the guys that leave the signatures that I see, you know, it's like they're not playing their best golf.

I mean, Justin Thomas didn't play that good last week, finished third, whatever. Yeah, I mean, to play out by shot. Yeah. And I think both of those guys have that F you. I think that like the physical is one thing. and then you got to go to the mental. They both have that F you, they want to rip your head off and stomp on it no matter what you're playing for,

whatever the scenario. I think both of those guys have that aspect too, which I think is arguably when you get to that level, more important than maybe the physical. There's a pretty big separation right now. I don't know if you guys notice this or not. There seems to be a separation of about a dozen guys on the tour that are way better than everyone else.

Because I handicap golf now, and I just see a bunch of guys, you know, that are there every week that have got great stats, you know. And there's a few wannabes coming along that bounce up in there. But there's a really good handful of young guys like Shafle, Morikawa, English. I mean, there's a bunch of guys that look the same that all look solid. Russell Henley, you know, Joaquin Neiman.

They're all right there. But they have separate, in my mind, they've separated themselves from the pack. No doubt. I think you guys agree? Yeah, there's a very small group at the top right now that I think. All of the top. And then there's about 12 guys that are right there too, you know, also. Yeah, there's a small group like you mentioned it.

You feel like it looks like they play like shit and they finish fifth. There's a few guys, there's a handful of guys that can do that. And then there's the others. I mean, we hardly saw Xander Schauchelay on TV at the Century Tournament of Champions and he finished fifth. Every time. Yeah. Well, I would, I downplayed, I downplayed Shaw Flay because he was getting over COVID.

He's, you know, in the practice round, he said later he only worked five holes and he felt terrible because I had COVID, so I knew what that felt like. And I downplayed Rahm because he had new sticks. And I think, you know, under pressure, even if you shot a 59 at Silver Leaf with him, which I heard he did, you've got to look down at a friend under pressure. So I downplayed him. So I'm a real hero for catching those guys. Either one of them didn't win. So that's props to me. Congratulations. Incredible.

Incredible handicapping. Elk, but we can talk golf with you all day. There's no doubt about that. But we got to get to our fun part of the program. The Emergency 9, nine, nine fun questions to learn a lot about Steve Elkinton. We asked this to everyone right out of the gate. There's a movie made about the life of Steve Elkinton. You can pick any actor, Dead or Alive, to play you.

Who's it going to be? I'm not good at this stuff. Dead or alive. Liam Nelson. Yeah. Oh, okay. He was in my runnings for you, Elk. Who'd you go on?

I went with Clive Owen. I know he's an English guy here. You know, Ozzy, I don't want any conflict there, but I think Clive Owen could... That would have been a conflict, Lee, sorry. Yeah, I should have gone with somebody from a little further south. I just went with an Aussie and I went Hugh Jackman. No, too good looking.

I totally agree with you. He's way too good looking for you. I'm going to have an ugly guy. Yeah, with makeup, they can doctor it up and make him, you know, down to your level. He likes to fight, though, elk. You like to fight. There's that. You know what I mean?

He's an ex man. He could kill you with any hand. Hey. Exactly. Exactly. All right, second one. And Gary McCord told me this, and I just want to know how it's accomplished and if it's true. But Gary McCord told me you can sign your autograph on a golf ball on a single dimple. That's true. Wow. How does one do that? Micro calligraphy. It's all in the wrist. You've got to have the right pen, though. I can take a

micro pen and sign my whole name in a dimple, yeah. Wow. Elkington. Did you ever do that like a fan and throw it to them? Oh, yeah. I once signed. Asshole didn't sign my ball. I think Tony DeVarro has the President's Cup from like 96 where I signed both teams and both caddies on about eight dimples, all teams, all caddies on eight dimples. Wow.

I got it, I think. A cartoonist, micro-colligraphy, you do it all. Handicapper, shit. Yeah. Pretty much. Everything's happening here, yeah. Okay. number three, I heard you are, you're anti-hotels.

You're not staying there. I think it may be an allergy thing, but can you please explain why? And I heard you recently sold it, which I'm very sad of, but can you please tell the people at home about the big show? I'm definitely anti-hotals. I think there's a limit in your life. There's an inside of you, there's a limit of how many hotels you can stay at. And then once you've gone to that limit, then you've got to do something else.

You know, I used to hate getting my food under plastic or I'd go in to get a drink and to be plastic on it. So I just, not a germaphobe, I just can't do it anymore. And the big show was a mobile estate, double-decker that Will Smith had when he did men in black and I had it on Champions Tourists, pulled by 18-wheeler. You can't ride in it, but once it's set up, double-decker, you can look at it online, potting green, bourbon bar.

Look, oh, by the way, you, I think you might have slept on the floor there one night on that. No, I did not sleep on the floor. This is not true. That sounds right. That's a good time for big show, but I've never slept there. Yeah, you're right. We drank a bottle of Pappy Van Wicker one night.

Me, you and Pat at. Well, we and Pat drank it. You didn't. You were pretty pissed off the next morning at us. He goes, this leaves you'd love it. We got a little banged up up at Pat's place, filming some stuff for Secret Golf. and we got Elk to open up a bottle of Papi

and me and Pat drank the entire thing. And the next morning I was like, elk, that was nice for you to open that bottle of Papi. He goes, yeah, wish you assholes would let me have some. Seemed like a good idea at the time. That's a quick way to lose a friend right there and drink the whole bottle of Papi that they opened up for you. But it is, it was cool sleeves.

You should have seen it. Obviously, he said full bourbon bar, little entertainment area, putting green, up top, and could sleep, how many people? There's a big bunk house. It can sleep. it does and then major bedroom in the back for me. It's the big show.

No wonder, an anti-hotel shit. You travel with the brits. No, you got rid of it? No, no, no. I just finished up, I didn't have anywhere to go. We shot a 48 episode series on Secret Golf and where I went around and played public courses and shot Passion.

No, it can be brought back. It's not done, done. Okay, okay. Good. All right. Fair enough. play sounds incredible. I can't believe you drank all his pappy. That's that's that's a tough one to swallow. All right. Next one. Next. Yeah. Yeah. It happens. All right. Next one, Elk. I'm taking you back

to the 1995 world match play. You got a 36 whole match against Colin Montgomery and you come off the morning 18 and something happens and this is when you knew you had his ass dead to rights. Tell us what happened. This is so good, dude. Well, Colin Montgomery, you know, played golf here at Houston Baptist, so I know Monty better than anyone, but I beat him in the PGA championship, and then that year later in the summer, I went over to play the World Match Play,

and I get him in the second or in the third round. I think it was a semifinal. And, you know, the press and everyone over there is Monty wants revenge, right, on Elkington. Okay, whatever, Monty. So every match at World Matchplay is a 36-hole deal. So after 18 holes, I have like eight birdies

and I'm one up on this fat bastard and we go into the clubhouse which is a castle and there's an area just for the players to eat. Well there's only like four people left in the tournament but they have the most unbelievable buffet

in the middle of the deal and the clubhouse it went with is a castle and right in the middle of this buffet is a custard castle. It's magnificent. All the food and all that. My wife and I are sitting over in this corner,

and Monty's over on the other side. He's got Prince Andrew. He's got, you know, Prince Higginbotham, the third, wank, wank, over there. And he's got all the crew over there. And so Monty gets up. We've got to see back off in about an hour. And he gets up and he goes over and he gets a dinner plate

and he takes a big spoon. He goes over to the Custod Castle. the clubhouse, and this son of a bitch takes out the ladies locker room, the observatory, the pro shop, out of the greenkeeper's shed, onto a plate. I mean, he had this deal. And I thought to myself, what the fuck? There's no way. He's going to take five forks over there.

He's going to put it in the middle of the table. That's his deal on handling the royal family. Nope. He went over there and sat down and ate all that cusset himself. and I sat there and watched his fat ass eat that custard. I turned to my wife, I said, there's not a man alive that can eat that much custard that can beat me in this back nine.

I beat his ass about four and three. I said he was custed out. Oh, that is awesome. I love that story. The ladies locker room. The maintenance shed, guest bedroom. That is awesome. Oh, shit.

You mentioned the bottle of Pappy that Pat and I consumed. You're a big bourbon guy. give me Steve Elginton's top three bourbons. Price doesn't matter. Well, you know, if you're going to go day to day, you've got to go with the number one bourbon from the taste test. It's like a blanton's, a very tangerine taste. If you want a little spicier,

you might go with something like a Maker's 46 or a well at 12. Angels envy would be a drink that I think that everyone loves. I mean, bourbon is big, long palate of woodsy and peppery on one end. and sweet and vanilla and all that. But, you know, I've got all the Papi Van Winkles. They sit there. There's other ones that are really good. But, you know, all right.

The ones, as you know. Colton, get down there and help you out. I'll help you get rid of that Papi if you need. I got to send me a bell. All right, Elk, this is the next one. If you need a little bit of a reference where this comes from, let me know. But I'm going to ask it like this. Can you please define the word Ruba Donga for us?

well that story was you know when we started at implementing the drug policy on the tour and they were going to do drug testing and we were at a meeting in san diego were you at that meeting call probably i don't listen when they talk about illegal drugs like oh i'm not on performance enhancing things as you yeah this is when they were all talking about it and I was I at the end of the meeting they were talking about they were going to do a urine test blah blah blah and I knew this thing called a wizinator which is a wizardator is a fake penis that you wear over your penis full of someone else's urine and you get clean test you wear it to work and if you I mean don't don't don't laugh I mean they sold 800,000 of them last year on the internet

maybe maybe allegedly I don't know that but maybe McCord could fill you in on that but So it's called a Wizzinator. So I think Fincham was up telling us that we're going to do this and we're going to do that and this and that. We're going to test you as soon as you walk off and this and that. And I said something about, so let me get this straight. With golfers, we're going to tee off at 630 in the morning at San Diego. We're going to get up.

We're going to get a rubber penis and put it over our penis with someone else's clean urine. We're going to play with that for 18 holes. And then we're going to get out there. And we're going to shoot that into a job. iron and you want to see all that and it's like a rubber donger over your deal and he said and finch him after the meeting he came up to me he said you totally fucked up the whole meeting when you went down that track with that he he didn't he didn't know that there was such a thing as a whizanator but do you call it no what he's wearing a whizzenator on the tour do you think

god no i mean Greg Norman may have been wearing one in that instagram picture floating around That could have been a rubba donga. Yes. There was something abnormal going on in that thing. But didn't they want you to like, the whole rule was, are you got to take off your shirt and your, like, get all the way naked, basically, so you can show that you don't have a rubidonga.

A big chilted mirror, chilted back at you. So, you know, you had to go, this deal. So the guy's there, you know, doing this show. That's a bit aggressive, I feel like. It's like knock yourself out, pal. How about it? Making sure you don't have. the Rabadonga.

The Rubadonga. They need to rebrand that under that name. That's incredible. All right. Next question. You're known for wearing some very interesting outfits. Pat Perez says you arguably have the worst fashion sense he's ever seen. So in a few short words, could you please describe your fashion sense?

I don't have any. I don't have any. He's not a very good one to talk about that. that but you know when you go to New York City you'll see a guy in a pinstripe suit with a paisley tie there is no rules slees help me out here mate you you got a bit of stuff there's no rule of what you wear with what you wear when it's a suit and tie so I've taken that a fraction further as you know so there's no rule anywhere so yeah dude the man makes the clothes the clothes don't make the man if you got what it takes to pull it off you can make anything look good and you

that maybe the best shoe lineup of all time out there. Bingo. Sleas gets it, Colt. I was sitting on the, me and Pat Perez were hitting balls on the range of the Canadian open at Glen Abbey one year, and here comes Elk. It's a long walk from the locker room, and he strolls onto the range with like a lime green shirt, brown pants, black belt, those red and white style shoes you wore in like some awkward colored hat. And you just look at it, and I look good, boys, don't I? It was the worst thing I've ever seen. obviously you dress good to feel good you feel good you play good you play good you make money you get money you get laid it's a circle say on that a second have you been walking out and your wife go no you're

going to change not one time she she knew me when i was in college i mean we'd been married 30 years she's like that's interesting but okay whatever i'm stuck with you my daughter hey my daughter She's a hippie child. She makes me look like you. She makes me look monochromatic compared to my daughter. We need to get that quote made into a shirt. It's just a big circle and it goes look good or dress good, feel good, play good, make a lot of money, get laid.

That's the circle of life right there. Get laid, feel good. Feel good again. And then you start back over again. Yeah, that's it. Brilliant. All right. I'm in.

That's hard to argue with. All right, here we go. Next one, Elk. You've been quoted as saying you're a guy that likes drinking. and you like fighting. All right, so we're going to combine both of those here. You're going into a bar fight. No telling how many guys you're going up against,

but you get to pick one PJ tour player, either former or current, to go into battle with you. Who you take? Current, I might take Coke crack. Yeah, he's country strong. It's pretty stout. Former.

You could go low, could you? No, I don't fight. Use Colt as the decoy. Just throw them out there. I go sweet talk everyone to cheer him up, tell him not to fight this. It's a terrible idea. I don't like fighting.

I don't like fighting. I have a little social sip, though, with you. But, you know, I'm 58. Can you believe it? How old's McCord, by the way? Is he over 70s? 109. Yeah.

He's breaking the record every day that he keeps ticking. He's actually 71. Is he really? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Active is all shit, too. All right. We used to do talking about McCorm.

We used to do, when I first came on tour, I was a rookie. He was, he was a comedian or he was a magic guy. We would do, we would do, he said, I got an outing for you. He said, you're going to hit balls. I'm going to do magic tricks. We get paid $100 a piece. You in? I'm in, I'm in.

We're doing it in L.A. We do it like three nights a week. That is awesome. He can still do all those things. He's got some crazy tricks and the hands are still sharp, man. It's pretty cool. He lived in a railway car when I met him. Yeah.

He lived in a storage unit for a, while too, so he's defied the odds. Yeah. Now he's got a penthouse. Yeah, he's doing okay now. Yeah. All right. Last question. Elk, you were a member of the only international team to win the President's Cup in 1998. America has obviously dominated this event.

Do you think the international team will win the President's Cup this decade? How many more is that for us? How many more is that? The Rider Cup this year is just say you got four. They win one of the next five. yeah he get five who's the captain Mark Iwoman

Trevor him's not the captain he might be broadcasting it sorry gold jacket green jacket I think the greatest thing about us winning that tournament forget that we won it

Peter Thompson was the captain five times that was his name he won five British Open he was the greatest guy in the world I don't know I mean, if Tiger Woods is going to be the captain, I mean, what chance do we have? No, you guys are so loaded. I mean, we got to take, you know, we got to take, you know, I don't know what the tour says,

but we're supposed to take a bunch of guys from all over the place that's never known one. It's going to be tough. Yeah, it's a tough format. I wish it was a little, like last year, obviously, I think the golf course is what made it so close being at Royal Melbourne. Yeah, that was a good look. I wish they could figure out something to make it a little, a little more competitive. Yeah.

Well, Elk, get Elk in there as captain. Tell them the circle of life, dude. They'll all understand. Work all life. Fuck. What else do they need? Let me do the outfits and give them the speech. We'll be ready to roll.

There you go. Everyone wins. Well, Elk, as always, it's been a pleasure, my man. Thank you so much for joining us on Golf Sub-Par. Thank you both. Enjoy your show. I love it. Thank you.

Thank you, help. All right. And that was the 1995 PGA champion, Steve Elkton. And Sleas, how about this? I didn't bring it up, because I don't even know if he remembers. The first PGA tour player I ever met. With Big Elk? Yep.

Where was it? So my good friend, Ross Rourke, him and Elkington are good buddies. So we made it to the state championship, my freshman year in high school. I believe I was 14 years old. And my kind of reward for making the state championship was Ross took me down to Colonial. This was on a Tuesday. This is how much things have changed. We just stroll in.

Hello, we're here with Mr. Elkinton. He meets us at the front. We stroll into player family dining. in locker room puts the shoes on we have a bite to eat i just walk onto the range with him watching hit balls go out for a practice round spent the whole day with him it was an absolute blast that's pretty sweet for a 14 year old kid to do that and just walking out onto a pj tour event like yeah where's player dining we want to go in there and hang out with our buddies for a little bit little i can barely get my mom in right now dude he's got so many good stories he's a regular on

jim rome and he's gone on there and told some unbelievable stories of some of those if you've listened to that show you might have heard before but dude the the colin montgomery story about the 36 old day and him coming in and this was billed as like Monty was going to give his revenge on elk and all this stuff and he goes in and there's a tight match and then he watched elk the way he tells that story is like I watched this man just load custard load custard he's like there's not a human on earth that can beat me after eating that much because I think that's an unbelievable I love that he said the tower of custard was built like the clubhouse he's like he took the men's locker room the women's locker room the car room and everything I was like oh my god yeah there's no way his

ass is going to beat me after eating all that custard. Yeah, how about Monty, just in the middle of a deal? Like, yeah, I might as well load up on a few pounds of custard to get me through the second 18. That's a, walking 36 is tough anyways. You load up on that. It's damn near impossible. But, Elk, he is one of my favorites to sit down and talk with. Like I said, he just lets it fly.

He doesn't really care. If you don't like what he has to say, don't listen. And he gets in trouble occasionally, but like, you know what? I like guys like that so much more than the toe of the line guy. There's so much of that out there right now because people are afraid. I'm getting in trouble, and I don't blame them. You know what I mean? you slip up a little bit or say something that's unpopular,

they'll be coming for your ass. But Elkben really seemed to give a shit about that. And that's why he's always fun to have him on to talk about pretty much anything. Nope. I can't thank him enough for sitting down with us. It was a lot of fun. And I'm sure we'll do it again sometime because he's got many, many more stories. But now it's time to get to our gambling picks.

We got the American Express Championship this week out in Palm Springs. A little change in the format. No amateurs this year because of all the stuff going on with the pandemic and everything. And we just got two courses. No Lakeinta anymore. at the country club we're just at the stadium course and the nicholas tournament course of pga west so it's going to be a really strong field just two days in a cut instead of three days like normal but heck of a field we're going to start with our survivor pool this is where our personal bet which

we haven't set the stakes for this year yet we're we're if you're going to chime in on twitter or social media whatever it throw us out some ideas for the stakes too because we don't know right now oh the round of caddying that was last year we can ramp it up we could do whatever we're open for suggestions but we're working on that right now but we got to get the ball rolling This is going to be much easier to keep track of. No way. We won't have to worry about the Tour Championship then like we did this past year. But I'll start it off, Sleece, for my first one and done, okay?

This man, his last three appearances, 2017, he finished second. 2018, he finished T3rd. 2019, he finished tied for second. What are you trying to say? Well, last year, he didn't play because him and his wife, the birth of their child, was that week. So he had to miss out on this week where he has not finished worse than third in the last three years. I actually played with this guy when he shot 59 at Laquinta, country club. I know we're not playing there this year, but this guy loves this place. It's a great way

for him to start off the year. The Canadian Adam Hadwin is my pick. Hard to knock that one. That's an expensive baby, by the way. Any other week of the year, you know what I mean? This is the week I normally make $650,000. You can pay, you go to whatever college you want, kid. You couldn't be born next week at Tori Pines. Maybe just hold it. Just pinch it for a couple of weeks until I get back. But yeah, I mean, he's a great pick. You mentioned his track record. And he fits the bill. I'm kind of trying to go with a similar type of guy, and you and I both played these golf courses. I don't know if you'll agree with me here, but I feel like neither of the courses are very long by today's thing.

I mean, the par 72s are like, what, maybe 7,200 yards, if that, somewhere around there. And I think at the stadium course, you got to put the ball on the fairway. There's some drives that are puckered, puckery you up out there. But mostly, I feel like second shot golf course, iron play is pivotal. And also with the way the scoring is, 20 to 26 under, I think is kind of what we're used to see and win out there. You got to make, you don't shoot 22 under without holding some putts. So you got to have a guy that can roll.

Yeah, I mean, it's dome golf out there. Very rarely do you get any win. Normally the weather's perfect. That's why one reason a lot of guys choose to start their year here. It's like you just kind of dip your toe into the shallow end and just kind of ease your way into the season. Yeah, stadium course got a little tough, some tough holes out there. But there's no rough. Like you said, dome golf.

There's not a lot. But I'm going with a guy. I think that's in the same vein as Adam had one. I'm going Russell Henley. Okay. I like him because 11th last week. I like the guy that's coming off a week already, maybe not starting their season at the American Express.

And since the restart from COVID, when they came back, starting at Colonial last year, he's number one on the PGA Tour, strokes gained approach. So that's the kind of the stat that I think will matter the most is iron play. Nobody's doing it better than Russell Henley last week. And he finished 11th last week with a bad putting week. And he's the guy that I think that when he gets going with that thing, he can get really hot and he's not afraid to shoot some digits out there. So I'm going to go Russell Henley for the one and done this week.

Yeah, I like it. He was very high on my list last week for the Sony Open. did all right for me. But yeah, you're right. He's a guy that can go very, very low. As far as maybe our favorites are dark horses, so you guys out there can try to make some money if you want to place a little wager.

For me, I mean, it's no secret. I'm sticking with my dark horse. Adam Hadwin, he's 66 to 1. So it might surprise you a little bit. He's going with my 1 and done. But here's a guy. He didn't have the best 20-20, but I'm telling you something about this place

really gets him going. He's going to be my dark horse. As far as my favorite, a guy that's probably a big surprise that he hasn't won yet. on the PGA tour, even though he did just finish his rookie season, but he finished third here last year. He finished T-13 over the century tournament of champions,

shooting 17 under par. My friends in Dallas have been saying this kid's been playing some great golf. There's no doubt in my mind he's going to win at some point this week. I just say, why not this week? The American Express Championship, Scotty Sheffler, 16 to 1. Yep, house favorite. I love getting a little inside scoop from the guys at home. We do it out here in Arizona whenever we see a guy starting to trend.

We'll start to load up on him. So the boys back in Dallas say he's playing well. He doesn't really play bad very often at all. So yeah, Scotty Schaeffler as your favorite. What's he going? 16 to 1. All right, I'll start with my favorite because he's the same mod, 16 to 1. I'm going to go Patrick Reed here, okay?

I'm picking him because, like I said, how low the scores are out here, assuming that the wind doesn't blow. You got to have a guy that can hold some putts. Patrick Reed, incredible with the putter. Greens are fairly easy to read out there. And in 2021, he hasn't played a ton of events. I mean, this is stretching all the way back to the U.S. Open, but his worst finish is 21st. This is tournament of champions out in Hawaii, so not a great week out there for him. but he's just a guy that there's not a lot of mistakes and it gets up Hutter going.

I think he absolutely have a week out there. So he's my guy at 16 to 1. And I'm going to go long shot here. 80 to 1 is my guy. Brendan Steele. So I'm picking him. This is the reason why. Coming off a nice week last week, 54 whole leader, disappointed.

Second year in a row that he hasn't been able to close the deal out there in Hawaii, but still playing very, very well. Ended up finished in fourth place. And he just does a lot of his damage on the West Coast. Really good West Coast. We know what he does at Safeway. I mean, he's a staple up there, tends to always do well. But I was torn between, all right, is he going to be disappointed showing up this week

that he lost another chance and didn't get it done? Or is he going to be like, you know what, I'm still playing really good golf, and I got a week out. And he drives it so long. It doesn't matter out there as much, but he's a great driver of the golf ball when he gets going. And in terms of guys who can win at 50 to 1 or higher, I think Brendan Steele is a guy that could do that. There you go. 80 to 1.

That can make you some nice money. That's cheese. Bernard Steele's able to get it done. But that's going to be our picks for this week on the, for the American Experience. championship. Next week, another big interview coming. Half man, half amazing. You know him as Andres Gonzalez.

We'll be in studio. We're back in studio. Dre is making another appearance in town. We're getting a lot of, we're getting a good fix of Andres Gonzalez out here. A lot to get into. I mean, I think both of us, we go way, way back to college golf. I travel the mini tours, Canada, all that stuff with them. There will be some really, really good stories coming out of this one.

I just feel like you're really trying to stretch this twin thing out quite a bit. so you're making sure a guest that was there, part of the winning team. So we have to talk about this twin fin for a night. We got to get it while a pot, dude. We can't talk about it two years from now. Eventually, we might be able to let this story die a little bit. Well, it's been the first 30 minutes. I'll let you talk to Dre about it.

I'll just tune out and you guys can have a little moment. I don't want to. I've heard enough about it. I feel like I was there. I know every shot. Yeah, well, you should have been because it was history. Well, history was made, bud. Well, let me tell you, if I would have been there, this might not have happened.

Debatable. Just throwing that out there. We'll see what Dre has to say about. But it's going to be, I mean, dude, one of the most liked guys in professional golf. Nobody can say a bad thing about Dre. It's going to be a fun one. Yeah, you're not going to want to miss it. Andres Gonzalez in studio right here with the boys from Golf Subbar.

Everyone have a great week. We'll be back next week.