Subpar - Xander Schauffele Interview: The first time he saw his swing, money games with Phil Mickelson

Episode Date: June 1, 2021

On this week's episode of GOLF's Subpar, four-time PGA Tour winner Xander Schauffele joins former PGA Tour pro Colt Knost and jicky jack legend Drew Stoltz for an exclusive interview at Quail Hollow. The first rookie to win the Tour Championship in the FedExCup era talks seeing his swing for the first time at 18, playing money games with Phil Mickelson and Charley Hoffman, and why exactly he agreed to be a guest on Subpar.

Hello world. Welcome to another week at golf subpar. Colt Nost and Drew Stoltz. Slees, Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial. Jason Coak's your champion. Beat out our guy, Jordan Speath. But that is not the story of the week. The story of the week was you working on the weekend at Colonial on the PGA Tour. First time ever. There's the first time for everything. First, good to have you back in studio. First time, eight long weeks on the road for the kid. You got to be gassed a little bit.

But it was fun seeing you last week. And yeah, dude, tour debut on the bag. Windham Clark. A lot of expectations. I actually went into the week talking to Dub, and I was like, what do you want me to do? Do you want me to try hard? I'll get you all the numbers. You can go through them.

I want you to get them too just because I don't want to be on the hook for any bad numbers, anything like that. And he's like, honestly, I'm on my six weeks straight. Wasn't even really planning on playing on playing this week. Wasn't planning on paying the PJ championship the week before. He's like, I just want to have fun. I've never played good here. I've never even sniff to cut. So anything we do this week is a bonus.

Let's just go out there. Laugh, make me laugh. Let's play like we're playing at Whisper Rock. You don't need to be serious or do any of that. Let's just have a good time and go. And dude, we did. I mean, it was a lot of fun. Like, we had a blast out there.

It was more or less, he did a shot. We go through all our numbers. We start walking and it was like over. We just talk about random stuff. There's some good content to be had if we had have been miced up the whole time. Might have been canceled by society altogether after that. But, I mean, it was really, really fun watching him go around to play. I mean, top 20 at the end of the week.

Bogie free weekend. That was solid. And he was like, dude, I've never played this good here before. That was fun. And I think it was just kind of a nice. break for him in a long stretch of golf to kind of just chill a little bit and not have it as much of a grind as he's been going through. Yeah, well, I was documenting the early part of the week. You got off to a little bit of a rocky start. Tuesday, right out of the gates, you dropped the

rangefinder. Yep. The group behind you had to bring it up to you on the next hole. Thursday, you get down to your first tee shot, you don't have a pin sheet, which is kind of important. Need it. Got to have it. The first day, we tee off. And we're sitting there hitting a couple of last practice puts on that upper putting green. And it's like two minutes before we tee off. All the other players are going to tee. I'm like, duh, all right, he hands me at the putter. I'm like, I'll meet you over there. It's like good. Cool.

So I grab a putter, walk over there, set up the bag, getting ready, you know, getting all the cover distances and things like that. Dub's nowhere. And Ben On, we play with Ben On and Sam Ryder. They're announcing Ben On on the T. Ben On stops after they announce him. Like, looks around. He's like, where's Windham?

I'm like, he's right here. He just was behind me 30 seconds ago. I don't know what he's doing. Ben on T's off. Dub is still not there. And I'm like, dude, what is going on? So I'm like looking around the corner. I don't know if this is legal.

Dub was like, the rule is, I guess, when you're announced, you have to be on the T. So if you're the third person, if Dub had been first, it would have been a penalty. It wouldn't have been up there yet. So anyways, finally, Dub comes around the corner. So I'm already like, Jesus, if I had, my guy hadn't been on the T for his first T shot for his first time in his career, that'd be some problems. But he got up there. We're walking down the fairway. We're about 120 yards off the T's like, oh, you got a pinch sheet.

I was like, no, I thought that's what you're doing when you were going in the tent in there. He's like, no, I don't have one. Did you not think you need one for yourself? No, I did, but I thought he would just grab it. I normally would get it out of the caddy locker room, but I didn't go down there that day. So I was like, no, dude, I don't got a pin sheet. You got a pin sheet? He's like, no, I was like, all right, I'll go get it.

I was ready to go Usain Bolt back to the first team. I was like, God, this is going to get brought up. Colt's going to find out about it. Everyone's going to rag on me. And he's like, no, no, I got it. So he trots back, goes back and gets the pin sheets. I was like, there I was. First hole already fresh out the gate.

Like, well, this isn't going quite according to plan. But after that, I feel like the mistakes were pretty minimal. You caught me on TV on number eight. The first bunker we hit in. You saw the work I put in. I overraked the hell out of every bunker that I got. The last thing, Dub, was going to happen if someone hits in a bunker behind us and they complain about the rate job. So I was like, I might take a little while in these bunkers and make sure it's flawless.

I want to go back to the pin sheet real quick because just so you know, I hear all. I find out everything. I knew it. And I got a text right after y'all teed off from a caddy in the group behind you said, free content. Slee's already forgot a pin sheet. They had to come back and get a pin sheet. I'm like, first off, you made Wyndham go.

back and get it, which is just shocking to me. Our guy Ray Whitney, Cadying for Graham to let at the Olympics, does full-on sprint back to get a pin sheet and come back. I begged. I was like, dude, I got it. I got it. You just walk up there. I was like, he's like, dude, no, no, no.

I got it. I'm going to run back there. And I was like, all right, well, go get it. I did everything in my power to run back and get that pin sheet. He wasn't having it. But I was like walking alone in the fair way. I was like, God, people are going to find. I know Colt's going to find out about this.

Here we go. First hole right out the gates. But then after that, we got more into a routine. And it's straightened out. I mean, honestly, dude, we just walked around bullshited, laughed. It was like the most relaxed. And we got great players and caddies to play with, too. Like, the last day we played with Ryan Palmer, James Edmondson.

That was super fun. A lot of talking in that one. First couple of days, Sam Ryder is a guy who played, you know, Canada with for a number of years before he got on tour. His caddy was great. And then Dino, the beauty, who was carrying for Ben on, one of the best joke tellers. We just, I mean, it was like pretty relaxed atmosphere almost the entire time, which was perfect. Well, there was a moment where you weren't. so relaxed.

So let's get into this. So I was there all week doing the TV, and I had to go in. We got to get amongst advisors now. My boy Parker from CBS that rides with me and spots for me. He loves visors, so I, Wyndham had it in his locker, so I went in there to get it. Well, I see our good friend Adam Long. And he goes, did you see sleaze is wearing golf shoes out there? And I'm like, I know.

It's embarrassing. I was like, to be fair, it was wet. You didn't want your feet wet and all that. I understand that, but you're still wearing golf shoes. I was like, I got a little idea here. I was like, what if we maybe get a little fake fine letter written up? And he's like, dude, you got to do it. I'm like, okay, okay, okay.

So I call my guys at the PGA tour. Put me in touch with one of the rules guys, like, he'll do it for you. Just call him. So I call and I'm like, all right, here's what we got. My boy that I do the podcast with, radio, all that, he's catting for Wyndham. Well, he's wearing golf shoes out there. And I'm not sure if there's a rule or not, but I just need you to act like there is one. And write up a letter saying, you know, he broke caddy, the rules that caddies have to follow.

protocol, yeah. The protocol, all that. And I need you to find him. He goes, all right, what do you want to find it before? And I was like, $1,000. Because Adam said $5,000. I'm like, dude, that's not believable. That's just ridiculous.

There was talks maybe like stroke penalty. I'm like, you know, I got stroke wind him for his caddy doing this. I said $1,000. So my man writes up this beautiful letter. Got the PGA tour logo, rules official. I mean, it's official. It's real. If you get a real fine, this is what it looks like.

Dear Drew, we're, you know, we're so disappointed. And your blatant disregard for the rules is what I think is my favorite part. Yes, but it led to a $1,000 fine, which is payable to PGA Tour Charities. That's how it goes, and gave his cell phone number, his email if you need to reach out to him. Here it is. Well, the plan we had originally was it looked like there was going to have to be a restart on Saturday morning. So there was going to be going off two T's. Y'all were going to be in the afternoon going off number 10.

But I knew like some of the big name guys around the lead were going to be warming up possibly the same time. So I already had a talk where we're going to have CBS come out of. the camera, act like they're filming the guys that are in the lead, but slowly pan over to you as my man hands you this envelope with the letter in it. But that would have been disastrous, by the way. Yeah. But needless say, we came up with plan B, you know, y'all finish Saturday. He goes, I'm going to go give it to him in scoring right now. So I'm going to let you take it from here, because I was not there. I just hear what happened. We come out of the scoring tent. I was keeping the score for Dub and whoever was keeping score for. So I would walk up into the scoring tent,

you know, rip it off, give it to Dub. They'd check it all. And we walk out. Well, Dub, finally after tons of close misses on Saturday, finally hit one Stoney on 18, tap in. We're riding high. We got some good momentum going into Sunday. I was like, that's what I'm talking about kid. That's, you know,

that's that close one I've been talking about. We're all in a good mood, you know, a couple under on Saturday. We come out of the scoring tent and this official is right there. And he's like, hey, guys. He's like, are you Drew Stoltz? And I was like, yeah, of course I am, bud. What do you want to?

I thought he was ready to do like a report. Get the bigger ego on this new dynamic duo on the PJ tour. Like, yeah, I'm Drew. How are you? And he's like, and then the mood changed. She got real somber real quick. He's like, hey, man, I hate to be the bearer of bad news. And immediately in my head, I'm like, what did I do?

I've done something. I stood behind Dub while he was hitting or I was too close or whatever. I knew something disastrous that happened. He's like, it's come to our attention via, you know, some complaints out there that your shoes are nonconforming. And I was like, I looked at Dub and like, I, I, like, Wyndham gave me these shoes from Nike for caddying. And I'd, they have like the rubber nubs on the bottom, just like, all they're like walking golf shoes or whatever. And I'd ask like 10 different people. I was like, yo, are these okay?

They're waterproof. Dub gave them to me. Yeah, yeah, they're fine. Some other caddies are like, oh yeah, dude, you're good. It's no sweat. So I've been assured by a bunch of people that they were fine. Then he's like, we got some complaints about your footwear. And yeah, looking at him now, I can see that this violates the caddy protocol that's, you know, agreed upon by his player. Actually, the player is the one that's responsible for his caddy. So, you know, I hate to be the bear of bad news, but we're going to have to issue, fine. And he hands me the letter. And I'm like, are you out of your mind? What are we talking? I was like, dude, you got 85 guys out here, you know, trampling around with medals on the bottom. But it's my rubber issue. shoes that are a problem. Like, how is this a thing? So immediately I get the letter. It's like two paragraphs. I don't read one word. I'm just scrolling for the dollar amount. I'm like, where's the fine? Where's the fine? Where's the fine? I get to I'm like, $1,000. And I look up. I'm like, $1,000. I was like, is there no appeal process? There's no warning. Like, it's just one hit. If someone's playing slow, you guys give him a warning, I can't get a warning on the shoes. I would have taken him off. I would have taken him off. Like, how is this work? And then Wyndham chimes in. And he starts kind of, you know, going at him, which he did an

unbelievable acting job, by the way. I did give Wyndham a heads up the night before. Yeah. So Windham was, Wyndham was privy to all this, but he was like, he's like, what is this? How do we appeal this? I'm not going to stand for this. Like, how do I appeal this? And he's like, well, yeah, you can absolutely appeal it. He's like, Drew, can I see the bottom of your shoes? And I turn him up.

He's like, yeah, you don't have much of grounds for an appeal. I was like, how are these illegal? I asked 50 people and Nike gave him to me. What the hell is going on? So finally, he's like, you know, I hate to do this guy. Sorry, but yeah, this fall, Windham, this ultimately falls on you. And he like walked off and I'm like, dude, are you out of your mind? Like, what is going?

I felt so bad immediately. I was like, dude, you're not paying the fine. I'm paying the fine. It's my fault. I should have known. I was like, dude, don't worry. We're going to fight this. I'm going to call my agent right now.

He's going to get on it. Let's just, you know, go eat lunch. We'll figure this thing out. So I go down to eat lunch. Wyndham's agent text me. He's like, Sli's just got a call from the tour. Terrible look, bro for your first. And I'm like, yeah, I know it's a terrible look.

Rob. I freaking didn't know these things were illegal, bud. You know, somebody give me a freaking heads up on this thing. So I'm sitting down in their caddy in the in the in the in the in the locker room by myself for the just you know in a corner just suck in my thumb like God I can't believe this is happening. Oh and I told Windham after it got down I was like don't tell anyone about this like we're gonna figure this out we're gonna fight this this is a nothing burger we'll get it figured out but don't tell anyone I'm sitting

down there and I'm brainstorming who could be the guy that complained and I'm running through some names. I'm like who do I need to kill for this because someone's gonna die for this and I ultimately I had a couple names where I was like I think what may have happened was somebody wanted to play a joke on me because I'm getting a bunch of shit from all the guys you know a week oh wow they'll let anybody out here and that type of stuff and I was like I bet somebody went to the tour and complained thinking that they'd like come talk to me and issue me a warning or whatever and play a little joke on me but once they reported it the tour like took it over and now it's just kind of escalated that was kind of what I thought and as I'm sitting there thinking more and more phone buzzes I look down

it's like oh Twitter you've been tagged in a tweet oh from colt most and I'm like okay this is weird timing I don't know what this could be but it better not be about the damn shoes click on it And it's your notes, you know, that you wrote like, update, Sleazy Man, fine, first round ever on VJT. I'm like, Jesus Christ. Immediately, I'm like, this fucking cult, man. I can't believe you was just airing out like this right now. You know, I said don't tell anyone. How does he already know all this stuff?

I hear all sleaze. Then it says scroll over for our comments and I scroll over and I see you interviewing Wyndham. And immediately when I saw like an interview was taking place, I was like, oh, this is fake. This is a prank. And I just got got got. Then you guys run through the, you know, the whole interview. And then at the end you say, got him. and all that.

And I was like, I cannot believe I got God. So I immediately walk out. A, I'm kind of happy because I'm like, thank God, this is fake. But B, I'm also pissed because I'm like, this is what I should be doing to guys. You know what I mean? I'm getting a little dose of my own right now. So I walk out, head straight to the putting green. And there's Dub with his brother, a couple other people, a couple other players standing

around and they're just dying laughing. I was like, you dirty dogs. And we had a huge laugh. And then, of course, every other player that found out about the whole week was like, oh, Slays out, you need an extra thousand? Are you working for free and all that? It was well done, dude. I was on air when we did all this because I was hanging out in the first fairway waiting on

Jordan's group to come through on Saturday. And Dubs, like, I want to post it on Instagram. I was like, no, first off, I came up with this. I'm going to be the one to release it. But come down to the first fairway. We'll film a little video real quick. So during a commercial break, we filmed that quick video, go back out. My phone's in the cart.

So I'm just waiting on you to explode. And all of a sudden, there's this text with me and Wyndham and you and just basically plotting how you're going to kill us. Yep. That's it. And I was like, yes, everything. is fantastic. I've never been happier because I knew we got you so good. It was just one of, it was one of those deals like, A, I feel like my antennas were down. I'm out of my element.

I'm a guest in the tour's house, you know, and I wasn't. The only positive of it was, I remained classy to the, who I found out is like one of the higher up like VPs of the PGA tour. I didn't bust out and say anything I shouldn't have. I kind of just ate it and kind of disputed it, but I was, didn't say anything stupid that I would have regretted, but also after after it happened, I was like, how are my antennas down so much that I didn't see it? this coming. But it was so much of like a bullshit penalty and just the right amount of a fine that I was like, there's so

many weird golf rules. You know, this could be a real thing. Like, I don't know. Well, when we first got the letter drawn up on Friday, it was during the rain delay, and I was over at Justin Thomas's house he rented. And because he was hanging out there, girl Jill, they had the dogs, and Spith came over because he didn't want to sit in the locker room.

He's got his dog, we're playing, hanging out, bullshitting, and I'm like, I tell the story. He's like, and then all of a sudden I get the letter. He's like, let me see it. So I show him, he's like, God, this is so good. So I got his group. Last group on Saturday. We're walking down the fairway. He caught an unbelievable break off the first time.

I kind of look back and just smile. I was like, you're unbelievable. He goes, hey, stop, come here. And I'm like, what? He goes, you got to show Michael the letter. I'm like, dude, you're the last group on Saturday. Like, let's focus. I'll show you the letter later.

But I love it. It went over very well. Go make some, yes, it went over very well. Tip of the cap to here. Touch me right here. Tip of the cap to you guys. It worked. I took a lot of grief from all the, because the word got around and people

were laughing about it and all this stuff. And I was like, yep, just got it. At some point, you just got a nod to your, you know, tip your cap and say, I got got a little bit. I was a little out of my element and took advantage of it. Well played. When the tweet notification came up and you, and I just read the note, I was like, this freaking cold. I can't believe you would just smoke me out like this, bro.

Like we're partners, dog. Come on. How about a little. And then I was going to blame Wyndham. Because I was like, I said, don't tell anybody. And then I had like three other people in my brain. I was going to kill that. I thought complained.

So it was like, good and bad. I was like, okay, thank God. I didn't get fine and ruin Windham. but and B, I don't have to kill anyone now, but I was also embarrassed. Well done. Congrats on your first top 20 on the PJ tour. That's great. Feels good.

Our guest this week is normally pretty disappointed when he finished top 20. Zander Shafle is an absolute ATM machine, one of the best players on the planet, and he sat down with us in Charlotte. Yeah, what a guy he is. This was fun because, like, he's a pretty kind of closed book, you know? He gives you the interviews after the round. He's not an emotional guy. He's not ever trying to have the spotlight.

So to get some insight from him, this is a really fun one. I didn't know him at all leading up to this one. Yeah, he's so nice. He was very open. He even took a few shots at my man the Sleys, so I really enjoyed that. Let's get to it. Here's Zander Shafley on Golf Subpar.

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Currently the fourth ranked player in the world four-time PJ Tour winner Probably makes the game of golf look easier than anyone else in the world I would argue Zander Shafley thanks for coming on my man Thanks for having me I appreciate appreciate we've been talking about this a little bit You know I had your group back at San Diego farmers Here we go and so we're gonna get to it We're on Friday afternoon you know it's your hometown event kind of grinding to make the cut and the weather turned a little not so San Diego on us Had a little sleek coming down and you blocked a ball

to the right of the green on 17. Easy. It was two feet off the green. It was off the green. It was off the green. Can it go right of where you were looking? It was right of where I was looking. It was also hailing too.

It was hailing. This is all true. This is all true. And we get up there and there's no golf ball. Because I always go over to assess the lie to see if it's difficult. And you're like, where did you see it? And I'm like, well, I thought it bounced. But apparently that was a piece of hail bouncing up.

Can't find the ball. And it's getting rather close to three minutes now. Three minutes goes fast. It does. When you actually do you think. three minutes, which is, you know, I feel like a bit of a gray area on tour these days. But when you actually do three minutes, it goes fast. We're sitting there that someone said like, minute 40.

And I was like, holy shit. Well, I'm walking and all of a sudden I see a dimple in the ground. I mean, this ball is buried. I'm like, oh, there's a ball here and he digs it up. It's his. Gets it up and down. Makes par, makes the cut on the number, I believe. I think I birdied 18.

The story's better if you made the cut. This kind of drags you through the dirt a little more. Yeah, it's better if you made on the number. I would have missed the cut if you didn't find the ball. 100%. And then you go on to finish tied for second and make $400,000,000. Here I am. And so I made a deal.

He's like, he's not about the money, Cole. No, he told me he's like, I'll give you some cash or you come on the podcast. For the team, I said, you know what? You come on the podcast. We'll call it even. For the squad. But if you just don't want to slap me some cash, I'll take it. I appreciate that.

I definitely owe you more than a podcast, but yeah, we're good. $4,000. No big deal. That's a car. Before we get like into all the beef of this thing, I just got to say, typically before show we have a guest on. We like to reach out to some friends, other players and dig up a little bit a dirt, hey, give us a funny story or something that happened.

I got to say, between the two of us, we've texted, called probably 10 people plus on you, and to a man, you are definitely the hardest person we've ever had on. They're like, dude, I don't know what to tell you the guy is perfect. So you got some good friends out there, or you have blackmail material on a lot of your friends because money's giving up nothing. Took the 435 and distributed across the tour, so no one's saying anything bad about it. Genius. That's smart.

Yeah, that's smart. I mean, between you and Colin Moracow, I'm not sure who has a cleaner image. I mean, it's something to be proud of. I mean, he's only been out here for like a couple weeks, so that doesn't really count. Give the time, Colin. Webb looks like Al Capone. All right, let's go back to the early years. He started at Long Beach State, transferred to San Diego State.

What was the move? Too close to John Mallinger or what was going on? How'd you know? That makes sense. Makes total sense. Yeah, I heard Malloy was there, and I met him in person, and it was kind of a red flag. Can't leave across the country. No, it was an easy move.

I signed with a coach there, and he left to take his dream job at Taylor Made, and it was kind of a no-brainer to go back home. And I got my dad, who's been my swing coach my whole life, and my putting coach in San Diego, so I figured if I want to get better at golf, I should probably be closer to my coaches. So that was the move. So it was an easy choice.

It was. How heavily recruited were you, like, coming up out of junior golf and things like that? Because, I mean, you were the, what, 2011, or, excuse me, California State High School champion. So you can't. Professional. Freudian Slip there. Zander?

He's from California. I was actually asked, Drew, to ask you how it was growing up in the shadow of Hale Irwin. Who told you to ask that? Wind him. Yep. That way I was getting there. Yeah, that's great. Ask him how it was growing up in my shadow.

That's exactly what he said you'd say. It's weird. You're predictable. My son knows me. Yeah. All right. So California State Champion, but you didn't play a ton of AJGA's all that. No, no, no.

Pretty much local. I mean, I got in a bunch of good schools. Everyone was rather shocked when I ended up going to Long Beach. sort of the worst school I could have possibly gone to, to them, you know, on the outside. But I felt like, you know, with the likes of Jamie Muggan there, along with the field and Virginia, and just a team I thought I could play on. That was kind of my dad's rule. He goes, you need to go somewhere you're going to play.

If I went to, like, a UCLA or Berkeley, he was like, you might struggle in school for one. And two, he goes, there's a good chance you don't play. You know what I mean? And so he wanted me to play starting from freshman year on, and that's part of the reason why we went there initially. Talk a little bit about your relationship with your dad because y'all have an interesting one. I mean, he is your swing coach. He's out a lot of weeks. He's got a lot of hats.

He does. He can be a little blunt. He's, yeah, you either love him or hate him, I think. You know, I think a lot of guys on tour, we always joke. It's a traveling circus. You know, there's nice, he's kind of like the linen guy now. He just walks around looking like a Cuban drug lord half the time. I think a lot of guys get a kick out of it, and he's kind of lighthearted,

and he'll kind of walk around and kind of shoot the shit with anyone. So I, you know, love or hate, I think most of the guys out here kind of enjoy his presence, it seems. He gave you a cigar and a, what, a glass of scotch or something at age 11? It seems like a healthy dad to me. Yeah, I phacimed him yesterday, actually, and he was smoking a cigar outside, so not a whole lot has changed. God bless him. Not too stressed. No.

No, not anymore, I can tell you that. He's your only coach you've ever had, right? And you didn't see your, I've read that you didn't, you haven't seen, you never saw your swing on video until you were 18 years old. What do you think the first time? Yeah, I was like 17 or 18. He said, I'm not going to show. show you your swing until it's perfect and it's far from it so you can't look at it and it was funny a lot of my friends growing up actually were like scared of him because he would threaten them like if

they videoed my swing and showed it to me on like an iPhone or something he'd hurt them physically so he was serious about it and they all respected it for the most part until you know I was old enough and I kind of went to college and I was away and I didn't see him as much I felt like it was time for me to see my swing so you know it was I don't know probably wasn't everything I dreamed of but it's good enough. Yeah, I'd say it's good enough. I believe in one interview, they asked him about your game, and I think he just flat out said, oh, he sucks.

Have you changed his mind yet? You know, the reverse psychology is big in the house. No, he'll just say, there's a bunch of stuff, a few shots of missing or something I need to work on. So here I am working on it. We're doing all right. What's the thing that you and your dad work on the mall? You seem to have a pretty simple golf game.

You never far off. I mean, you never miss a weekend, it seems like. What's the keys that you guys work on? I'd say a lot of it's set up for me. He always kind of made sure I would swing my swing, I guess, if that makes any sense. Sort of my natural move is something you reverts back to, sort of how I load and kind of, with the club and transition and how I move through the ball. He didn't really change much where, you know, I sit back and I hate how I kind of hang back

and I get a lot of side bend and certain things like that. And, you know, as I've gotten older, I've realized, you know, that kind of helps here and there as long as I can maintain my body. But for the most part, these days we just work a lot on setup and a lot of calibration, kind of just making sure I know, you know, where the target is in space and where I'm trying to hit it. Yeah, it seems simple. Yeah. It looks simple.

It looks so simple. It's incredible. I mean, you have no weaknesses. It's awesome to see. But when you were, like, say in college, you're coming up. I mean, did you ever envision, like, okay, here in just a few years, I'm going to be the number four ranked player in the world? No. Not at all.

I mean, it's just so cool. Like, it's crazy how, I mean, I feel like I watch a lot of golf. I pay attention to everything that's going on. I mean, you went to San Diego State, so it's not the biggest golf school in the world. And here you are. I mean, you go to the Corn Prairie Tour and you have a pretty good first year. But now it's just like, oh, my God, this rise has been unbelievable. Yeah, as you know, the tour is, I don't know about the Colorado Tour, but the PJ.

I love the Jammer. The PJ Tour is sort of a rat race. You know, you never really get a whole lot of time to sit back and look at, you know, what you wanted to do or accomplish and what you have accomplished. And it is crazy. You know, if I do take a real big step back and look at everything, it's, it's crazy, man. You know, it is crazy. Someone told me where I'd be now.

Obviously, I dreamt it up. I don't even know if I dreamt it that big, but, you know, I think everyone around me believed I could do it. So they're just pushed me along. Talk about 2016, because out on the Cornfield tour, you ended up finishing 26th on the regular season money list. By $1,000. I mean, what was that last week?

Like, I believe it was in Portland. I mean... Yeah, it was stressful, but, you know, some guy... Not some guy. Mark Anderson ended up hitting in the trees on the right, and I think it kicked out, and he ended up getting it up and down for Bertie, and I was sitting there.

I don't even know if I remember if I was watching. I was sick to my stomach. I was on my phone refreshing the app every two seconds. And then that happened where, you know, I think if you made par, I would have gotten in, something like that, you know what I mean? I'm sitting there. I'm like, damn, Mark Anderson, you know what I mean? Screwed me.

That's incredible. No, I didn't think that way at all. All I thought about was all the times I hockey stick to a short put because I was pissed off is really what I thought about. So I was fortunate that the playoffs were really close. I think that was a nice thing they implemented. And I knew I was in good form. So I really kind of washed off real quick and moved along swiftly.

thousand dollars oh and leading up to that year you go to cue school he cruised through first and second stage go to finals and finish 45th which is the spot you got to finish to get through the first two reshuffles i mean the first year or so you were living on the bubble there former former uh former uhmm champ stephen fox i still owe him a bottle of wine he missed like a six footer on the last hole austin my caddy was sitting there with a range finder over at pj National in like almost dark. Wow. And he missed a putt which let like five or six of us in. And I see Austin fist pumping running around like an idiot on the putting green because he was like one of the last two groups coming in and we needed someone to bogey. And he missed the six four

letting us in and I was like holy smokes. I finished tied 45th. That is a huge. Yeah. I mean in hindsight looking back out you don't get the first. No for yeah. Most likely we all know what opportunity means out here. So that was that was a big one for me. Damn shout out Stephen. That's awesome. What a guy. You just keep getting better and better and better You get out on the PGA tour After getting it in your card in the web playoffs there You win twice I mean you have a rookie of the year

Was when you got to the PJ tour It was like cool I made it or is it now What can I do at this level? When I got to the PJ tour it was it was I don't know if you remember your rookie year It was like holy smokes where's registration Where do I park? Where's the range? I had some

Where's a putting green I had some nice ladies tell me that caddy registration was down to low. So, I remember that well. Excuse me, son? That still might be true if you showed up to it. Yeah, that's a good point. But it was, it was hectic.

You know, you're not comfortable at all. It's a new environment, new courses. You see all the people that you've seen growing up on tour, watching on TV, not on tour, but watching from your couch on TV, and you're finally kind of sitting around in certain events with them. And you're just trying to, you know, ease into the week. And you're sitting there, I mean, for me, I sat there and stared at the cut board, the digital board all day long on Friday

sitting, you know, what's the cut going to be? It would stress me out, and that's kind of how I started. Got a, you know, didn't play well for a really long time. I think the U.S. Open was my big kind of come-out party. Did all right. Yeah, and the big thing that no one really knows is I actually had a Monday for that, and I played with the thing that people know is I played with Steve Stricker for 36 holes when he was trying on Monday for the Aaron Hills tournament in his hometown.

So I was very fortunate to be in that pairing sitting there, Stricker and his agent Mario was caddying. I'm about to watch a former top five player in the world go at it because I know more than anyone in this field he wants to get into this tournament. So it was awesome to watch Stricker pick apart that course in Germantown and I was able to learn a lot from him there and I ended up going into a playoff there and Stricker came up to me and we didn't know each other at all and he goes, you're going to be okay out here, kid.

Don't you worry? So full circle, you know, him, you know, hopefully I make this team here at Whistling Strais and him being my captain is really, really special for me personally. Wow, that's a pretty cool story. And we'll talk about that Rider Cup here in a little bit. Now that you've had a couple years under your belt now, and you know how hard it is to win on the PJ tour, do you ever look back on that rookie year with two wins right out the gates,

having never played any of those golf courses and think like, damn, that's pretty impressive year. You know what, Drew, I look back to those a lot. I haven't won in a while, which sucks, and I look back to those tournaments. I remember my attitude when I showed up to Eastlake was like a kid in the candy store, you know, 30 guys, no one was out there. I was walking around and I'm like, I'm just lucky to be here. You know what I mean? I had that mentality and I kind of obviously the course fits my game well and

I've played really well there, but I had this mentality that it was easy going, carefree and it led to a lot of good golf. So I do look back to my rookie year a lot in terms of sort of how I was, had a really bad attitude and had a really good attitude and kind of the fruits that bared. Talk about that put on the 70 second hole at that tour championship by the way. My expression kind of says it all. Wow. I was shit myself. My hands.

You know, I get sweaty thinking about it. I don't even know. Did you think you missed it when it came off the face? It was the thing. If you didn't put a hole there, that thing may have gone to the front edge of the green. I would have finished in fifth or something. That's probably what would have happened. But, you know, fortunately, for whatever reason, it caught low lip and went in.

Yeah, well, that rookie year, I mean, you made a lot of money. But you stayed very grounded because I believe you drove your same car for quite a while. First of all, tell us. Tell us about that car and have you upgraded yet? So I'm, I currently live in Las Vegas now, so I've had to get a few different cars just to be in different places. But I got a, in Vegas, I have a forerunner and an electric Audi. What was the one you drove for so long? The one I still have in San Diego is my Camry.

From college? From when I could put a down payment on, or when I leased it when I was on the web.com. I drove that exact car when I played a month of Mondays on the Corn Ferry, a gray camry. with just black, you know, red stitching. Like I remember the entire car, and I drove it around for a month, you know, around Kansas, Missouri, all these tournaments. And I get home, I'm like, I need a freaking car.

Like, I have a 96 Montero. That's, you know, the bearings are broke. It squeaks when I drive around. Like, it's done. It's toast. It's got 350,000 miles. I was like, I'm going to get the exact same car that I drove around for a month.

Like, I know everything about it. And that's what I did, and I still drive it now when I'm in San Diego. You pay off the lease? I ended up buying it out, yeah. Yeah, nice. You know, I figured it's all mine. Yeah.

That's beautiful. Luxury. You're a pretty frugal guy. If you win or do something big, you go out and treat yourself, or you kind of not into that stuff? Yeah. I'm not, you know, I guess it'd be smarter than not. Like, I have a few nice properties, you know what I mean?

That I decide to live in. Like, I'd much rather have a nice home than a nice car. That's just kind of the direction I go. I've been told it's a better investment, too. I don't. Yeah. They tend to appreciate a little bit more than a car. Losing everything.

So, I mean, for whatever reason, I have a little statue at my, parents house a little like golf figuring or whatever you want to call it and i i i took a sharpie when i was a kid and i drew uh an ap logo on the sleeve i had adidas on the hat i had mercedes on the on the on the chest all this i always i wanted the nicest car i wanted the nicest watches you know what exactly i'm a collar all this crap and so i had ap as a as a you know what i got highland now but i had apy as a as a thing i'm you know i figured watches aren't really it uh i could have done a thing with Mercedes. I'm like, I just, cars are just not, I don't know. I really don't care about it that much. You know what I mean? I just want to play a good golf.

Just like a barn rat. Hang with who I want to hang. Off a barn rat. Yeah. Same guy, you know, he's got a freaking, he's got a pair of shoes that worth more than my car, I think. That's probably very, very true. But I'll tell you what else is paid off for you, and that's your relationship with Charlie Hoffman and Phil Mickelson, living back in San Diego. Siegel? The Seigle. The Segal. How does that benefit me in what? I'm kidding. Well, financially, I think it benefits you very well, because you absolutely wear them out. out in those games at home. But how instrumental has that been to your career?

Like, I mean, getting to watch, I mean, Phil Meckxon, one of the greatest ever play. For sure. You spend a lot of time with him. So I actually've learned a lot more from Phil. I didn't really play with Phil initially. I wasn't one to sort of, hey guys, I'm from San Diego, you're from San Diego. We should hang out. You know what I mean?

That wasn't really my style. And so I didn't approach it that way. I just kind of, Phil needs his alone time. You know, now that I kind of learned about media and all this stuff, like, he's got a lot on his plate. So I'm like, I'm not going to go bug him. Charlie, on the other hand, was someone that was more, like, easy, easier for me to approach than anyone else. And so at tournaments, I started playing practice rounds with them.

I'd ask him, you know, I'd text him where registration was. Like, and he was great, you know, everyone calls him Siegel, which is true. It's a very accurate name for him. It's the best. He will fly and shit on you when he has an opportunity to, like a Siegel does. But for me personally, he was instrumental in a lot of my success. He sharpened my game on Tuesdays and helped make me, made me feel, comfortable quickly, you know, at other events. So I do owe Charlie a lot.

All right. That's enough nice things. I know, I know. This is probably the nicest thing someone's ever said about Charlie in all honesty. We're going to edit all this out. That also works for me. Part of our protocol, part of our policy here, no, no Charlie Hoffman fluffing. I get it. Yeah. But what's it been like getting to know, like how much do you lean on a guy like Phil who's been there, done that, you know, he's a guy whose career, everyone would like to emulate? Do you lean on him for advice or not? You know, I don't really, maybe I'm just too, you know, shy to ask someone for advice. I mean, my style is more to, you know, if I can introduce myself,

then end up playing a practice round with them. You know, I'll ask him sort of shots that I don't feel comfortable hitting, like around the greens, you know, what can you not learn from Phil around the green? So I'll sit there and watch him hit shots. And I played during quarantine a ton with Phil, and I sort of watched everything he did, how he practiced, how he went about chipping around the greens, his mentality when we're playing against each other

and obviously more lighthearted than tournament competition rounds, but the big thing I learned about Phil is just, like, I was addicted to the game. He is so driven and passionate at his age and for how long he's been playing. We'd go play, and he'd always ask to play an extra nine holes.

And if he lost, he'd want to play another 18 holes. And then I know he'd go home and go practice on his range and rancho. You know, I always joked about, I'm like, Phil, I know you've had a nice, you know, son a session warm up, you team off at 8 o'clock. I'm like, I know you've been hitting balls

for two hours with ghetto at the back. I flew a drone over your house. Like, I saw you guys all doing it. You know, he thought that was pretty funny because he was practicing at 6 a.00% for our little match. You know what I mean? It shocks me you didn't ask him for any advice with the driver off the team. He actually asked me a few things about the driver. What driver I'm using sort of my thought process with driver. And I didn't really give him too much crap about it. It's not my place. He's won, you know, five majors. Yeah, it's still your place.

You know, you give him that. I'll wait my time to lean on him. You find it hard. to get him to come out of his shell a little bit and get him to talk. It's kind of reserved. Doesn't like to... Whenever I'm down, edit this part out. Whenever I'm down to Phil, I'll have to do is start asking him questions about one of his sponsors or his coffee, and he'll start running on about it, and he'll actually forget that we have a match, and I feel like that's my time to shine, you know what I mean?

Spring in. So make sure you add that part out. I don't know if you listen to this or not. We'll cut that, too. That's kind of my go-to move when he's kicking my ass. I love that. Well, you've had some incredible success in majors. We've knocked on the door quite a few times.

I want to go back to 2019 because that was obviously one of the most special masters with what Tiger Woods did. You finished second. Take us through like that week. What was it like? I mean, he was obviously in the mix the whole week going on. What was that Sunday like with the Roars going on? It was a dream. It was everything I dreamed of as a kid.

You know, I think it's pretty rare to come across a moment like that. I never thought I'd be, you know, playing at a high level while he was still playing at a high level. So it's funny finishing second there doesn't hurt as much, I think, as other. finishes I've had just because at the end of the day, you know, I sat there, waited for him to go on the scoring, saw him holding his kid's hand, the sea of people, you know, him parted the sea, basically. It was, it was a, you know, historical moment. But coming down to stretch, holy smokes, I was, I was kind of in the zone, and then I saw myself tied for the lead,

and I completely lost my marbles there for a little bit. Have you ever been in, like, an atmosphere like that? No. No shot. Not me personally. I mean, I watched him win the U.S. Open in 08 at Torrey Pines. I was there by the green, and when he made the putt, it was almost like a, you know, felt like I was at a basketball game or a football game, you know what I mean, at a golf tournament,

which is hard to do. I think he's probably the only one that I can kind of make that noise, but the environment there on Sunday with the trees and the noise and the people and everyone running around when they're not supposed to be. It was pretty crazy.

Let me ask you this, look, because you said, I looked up and I saw it's tied for the lead and I kind of freaked out a little bit. Do you wish you wouldn't have looked? That was 15. No, I'm always going to look. Okay.

You know, maybe I'll keep my head down initially just because it doesn't matter, but when you need to know, you need to know. And I was on the 15th hole on a par five that everyone's birding, and it was a need to know moment. And so I think I looked up on 14, I put that little board there in between the two holes. And I saw that. I was, you know, I just birdied.

I was tied for the lead. And I was like, sitting there over my T-Shod. Like, oh, well, you're tied for the lead at the Masters. And I shipped it right in the trees. And I was like, oh, shit. Now I got to try and make par. That's incredible. Yeah, basically.

So many the guys that play, the Masters talk about how it's a place that you learn over time, right? The more you play it, the better you understand your way around that golf course. that you got four stars under your belt, what do you know now that you didn't know when you first started or how do you play the course differently? That I can win. I think that's really the big teller for me. I can compete. I can win. It's a course that sets up really well for my game, like how I shape the ball. And whether it's firm or fast or soft, I've been fortunate enough, I guess, to play in all kinds of conditions. Typically firm is what's the most fun to view. You know what I mean? That's when you see guys putting it into the water and doing crazy stuff

that we normally don't do. But I think that for me, the big takeaway is that, you know, I'm lucky we go back to the same place and that I can win there. I was going to just ask, your U.S. Open and Masters records are spectacular. I mean, your worst finish in your last four U.S. opens at six. Do you have a preference between those two as to which one you think? You're trying to jinx me right now or what? Yeah, just a little announcer's jinks right there.

Commentator's curse. Yeah, right there. It's 100% proof. I know you didn't. You're too smart. That's the first time. Sorry, what was your question? Do you, S.O.

or Masters? Who are you? You got one that you think suits you better? If he didn't ask, it doesn't count, right? We'll cut that. I don't know.

I think they're both just really difficult. If you look at the winning score, it's always, US Opens are anywhere between, you know, five over and five under to eight under tops. And the Masters is always, whether it's really firm, I think the highest is nine under,

maybe 10 under, and the lowest is, we've seen 20 under. So for me personally, any tournament where the winning score is, you know, you shoot three or four under each rounds, and you have a good chance of winning tournament

are the ones I like to play. What is one looking back that you're like, man, that one should have been mine? Is any tournament? No, no, no, major. Major. It's so funny, when I look back, I feel like in those moments,

I always made such big mistakes, like rookie mistakes. You know what I mean? When I go back and think about how I handled the day, obviously I did a lot of things well and kind of pulled off shots I wasn't supposed to, but I think when you're trying to win these tournaments, the most important thing is to not get away

from sort of how you play and how you got there in the first place. You don't lead tournament, you don't sort of win tournaments by doing these crazy kind of things. You look at Tiger's whole record, you know, he won tournaments by birding every par five he looked at, squeezing a few in here and, you know, making pars on par threes and squeezing a few birdies here and there, and, you know, he threw a fist pump in there to make it seem like it was

something really exciting, but for the most part, he played really boring golf. And so I think in these major situations and major tournaments, it's so easy to, that's why they're so hard to win, it's because you start sitting there. You start thinking about the end result, and you just go straight away from everything you did to get to that point. And I think when I look back, that's sort of what I did. I got really nervous.

I haven't been in that situation. I wasn't comfortable. And I ended up sitting there, like, trying to hit some crazy shot that I can't hit or something that week that I did that was stupid. Well, I'll tell you what my, you said any tournament. So I was like, my favorite win of yours is when you shot 11 under on Gary Woodland's ass to catch him at Capulua. That's mine too. That was the best one.

Oh, man. I love Gary. I was like, I play with Gary today. I played nine holes of Gary today. He's great. Gary's been, you know, someone I don't think I've leaned on him too much like Charlie, but I definitely, you know, went through a span where I played a lot of practice rounds with him and, you know, someone I learned from a lot as well. Sorry about Capulua. Yeah.

I'm not sorry about Capulahua. No, that would be. No. Absolutely not. I think, you know, when we saw him, we saw him, we saw us the next week. That was nice playing. Yeah, he wouldn't apologize if it was a... Oh, no chance.

No chance. He had like a three shot, three-shot. He played great. He played great. Yeah. Nice. Play better, Gary. Great round, man.

That was awesome. You got to close. Got a close. When we mentioned earlier in the show, like, I think everyone would agree, you don't have any weaknesses in your golf game. But if I was asking you, what's one area that you would say is a weakness or an area you need to improve, what would it be? It's got to be my short game.

I know it's statistically. It's gotten a lot better, but when I say short game, I mean, probably just chipping in general, chipping and pitches. In those tough moments coming down the stretch, we all know you're going to hit a weird shot here and there, and all of a sudden, 80% up and down gets knocked down to like 60 when you're a little bit more nervous. But if you're a really good chipper and pitcher, you can make those kind of hard wins easier.

You know, if you look at JT, how it's cleanup tournaments, Spieth, how he's clean up tournaments, These guys, like Phoenix is a good example for me where I was really upset. I had so many, I hit the ball in the correct spot so many times on par fives to where I should have left myself, you know, a gimmie or a five foot or at worst. And I'm sitting there with like 14 feet for Bertie. I'm like, what the F am I doing right now? You know what I mean? And so I'm sitting there just judging the crap on myself, like this is, which is a wrong

way to go about it, but I'm like, I know this is my weakness. I know if I can get over this hump and kind of make golf even easier for myself, I can ride off some wins. Well, you make it look pretty damn easy. It's about two greens around, so not a lot of chipping. That's why I need to work on my chipping. I'm not used to it. Yeah, that's true.

But, you know, this year's Masters, you mentioned the Roars in 2019. This year, I mean, you were the one making those roars. It was fun. That was, it was awesome. This year's, yeah, it was a special Masters. I mean, it looked like Hadeki was running away with it, and then all of a sudden, here you come, boom, boom, boom, knock off some birdies in a row. Place is going crazy.

And all of a sudden, you've made it a golf tournament again. Then you head to 16, and the whoops happened. Yeah, it was, 15 was gnarly. Austin, for whatever reason, knew. Obviously, hindsight, I'm sure Hideki would have laid up on 15. But Hideki hit a, I had a good drive on 15. Hadeki hit a really good drive, too. And Austin looks at me and goes, this is it.

He goes, this is our only chance. And I go, what do you mean? He goes, he hit a good drive. He's going to go for the green. I'm like, bullshit. And Austin goes, not that I, trust me. My cat is the least guy I want to fluff right now. But he goes, this is the only shot we have.

And he goes, if he hits a really good shot, screw it. We lose a tournament. You know what I mean? We don't have enough time to come back. but he's like, you know how hard this shot is? I'm into the screen right now? And I'm like, yeah. And of course, Hideki landed, what, like five yards or six yards past the pin in it,

like Tomahawks straight into the water. And so we get to 16. I feel all this momentum on my side. We looked at the wind. The flag on 15, everyone knows that corner is kind of brutal. So many guys from 2019 told me that same pin, similar feeling wind. The hole always plays shorter. And I hit 7 iron in 2019.

and I hit it long, and I had the sketchiest two-putt of my career in that situation. I did two-put. I ended up making like a nine-footer in 2019 after I hit it way past. So we knew long was missed, and so I'm sitting there. I'm like, I need to bury this hole, guys. Like we're trying to hit it just right of the pin. No biggie. Went's down left to right.

He goes, I'm like, I like eight. It was going about 180 for me out in Georgia. And so the pin was like 190. I can't remember what it was. 190-something. And of course, as I hit, I hit like kind of a trap draw, which is what I do when I hit it hard. And the wind kind of went very across or almost into.

and then we're sitting there and I was like, oh boy, here we go. And so I had a perfect shot. And it was funny when I dropped in the drop zone. We had a nine iron now from like 150 or something. And I hit a nine hour that flew like back at, it flew like 164. And so after the round, Austin took it really hard on himself. But I told him, I was like, dude, we got like, we got the wind wrong, but we were half correct. Because the reason I was able to, I was really upset, but the reason I was able to sleep on it okay was,

the 9 iron went down wind so the wind was swirling it wasn't like me and him were complete you know had complete blank moments and you were never on seven we effed it off you know what I mean and it seemed like you're never on seven iron we were never on we were on seven we were never on we were on seven um if I had to do one thing different I would have just cut a seven in there I think going with the wind is the big key you know I mean not fighting you on that hole the worst case you bail out right but you look at Hadeki I mean he freaking hit it right on that tier and three putted yeah so I knew if I hit if I bail out to the right like I'm not you know I'm not pressing this turn you know so overall um really a fun experience for me and not that i can i can't change anything to it

and i don't think i would have i think i obviously if i if i would have gone back i would hit a seven iron a little bit different but i think in that moment i'm i'm pretty happy with sort of what austin i did even though the result really sucks you seem like a guy that doesn't dwell on things for too long after the fact are you guys like within these close calls that you've had in the masters multiple times do you take the positives away from those more more so they need to take a discipline you know it's funny I think my most angry I've been, my girl can attest to this, was at Capulua. I know it's not the most important tournament, but winning is winning, where JT ended up winning there when I three put it on the final hole.

I was so pissed for whatever reason for like five days. You know, I try to be really aware of kind of just my surroundings and kind of how I feel and just be really honest. And it was like four days after the thing. I'm in San Diego, like week off or two weeks off, I'm sitting there brushed my teeth. And I just start, like, looking at myself and, like, like, you know what I mean? I'm sitting there looking at myself, like, I was so mad. And so for whatever reason, I was like, man, I'm not over this. You know what I mean?

So that thing took me, for whatever reason, it took me like five days to get over, which is kind of a long time for me. But, like I said, awareness is key, and I was pissed off. Why that went more so than theirs? I don't know. Yeah, I know how much he hates losing. And so I don't know if that, you know, played any part of it. I just, I think I really wanted to kind of keep in my winning ways, kind of keep it

up and I really wanted to win a tournament and maybe that, you know, put more pressure myself there. I have no idea. That's, I'm, I'm not brushing my teeth. Random. I'm looking at myself in the mirror and I'm just start, you know, cussing myself out. We got to talk. Let's talk about the team events because, you know, I played the President's Cup in 19

down in Australia. A lot of people say you were the MVP of that team. It's a pretty damn good run down there. We got the Ryder Cup coming up this season. Same to say, I think you're probably going to be on that team, but how much does it mean to you to qualify for those team events and what are those? week's like for you now that I I can't speak to Ryder Cup now that I sort of know what the team events are like you really want to play on them you know they're they're awesome they're really

special they're really cool they're really different it's such a really is a team effort and guys that you normally don't root for or you know that you're just competing against you know you're all kind of sharing the same house that week and everyone's pulling for each other and just the whole setup and get up for the whole thing is just really something you don't want to. I can totally see why when guys make the team and don't get on it, they're pushing extra hard to get back on. Are you guys that thrives out? The crowd in Melbourne was awesome.

I mean, they were great, and it was kind of peaked. That was during Patrick Reed's deal, and they were kind of really giving it to everybody. Are you looking forward to potentially be playing in front of the home fan and getting a little, you know, seeing the other side of it? Yeah, you know, you guys know, I'm not really, I don't really show too much emotion. I've noticed, yeah. Either way. You're not going to get a whole lot out of me. Typically, I can kind of see how in a team environment, if I would say anything, that could

be a place where you might see a fist pump or so out of me. Just I might get fired up more than normal. You know what I mean? It's easy to do. I'm not making any promises here. But, yeah, I think playing back in the, or back in the U.S. in front of home fans would be really special. Hopefully there are going to be fans at that term.

I have no idea what the logistics look like. There better be or they shouldn't have it. That's why we canceled the last one. So hopefully it's not some 50% deal here. Have you ever had to blow up on the golf course at any level, junior golf college, pro, whatever, where you've like slammed a club or broken anything? I've never broken a club my whole life.

My dad either. His whole rule was, one, it was like, if you break a club, I'll snap one over you yourself. It's a good rule. And then the fair trade. The second one would always be sort of his whole lookout on the whole situation, it would always sort of like, if you're playing by yourself in the forest or in a random place,

there's literally no one within 100 miles of you, would you break your club? That was kind of how he made me think because he thinks a lot of what everyone does. It's for show, it's showmanship, games, and ship, whatever you want to call it, where guys, you know, have a hard time expressing their emotions in the correct way.

So as a kid, I always would think, you know, I'd always put myself in that. Imagine if I was, you know, 100 miles away from everyone, would I snap this club right now? In my head, I'm like, damn, I really want to. But I also don't want him to snap a club over me, so I ended up never breaking one. So if you hit it in the divot in the middle

a fair way you don't like freak out and make sure everybody knows it's in a divot just in case you had a bad shot yeah you got to do not not quite my speed i really i really i's a good play yeah i try not to just in case something make sure the cameras know it's a bad lot i'm probably i mean i might do a couple extra leans and sit there you can do the hands on the hip and stare down you know and sit there with your caddy give it an extra 20 seconds i'll let everyone know it's in a divot but you know at the end of the day it's not going to do much you call cold over and say make sure everyone knows yeah it's like shit it's not my fault you say a little camera screen you you you flip that thing around.

Yeah, you've been watching my camera. It's nice. That is a nice kid up. Exactly. All right, a little E-9. Yeah, let's hit it. All right. We do this with everyone, Zander.

Emergency 9. Nine little fun questions. Fire away. Okay. First one, movie made about the life of you. Eventually someday, you're still young. We're not ready to make a movie

about your life yet. Who plays you? You can pick anyone, actor, dead, live, whatever. Who plays me? That is a good question. I'm trying to think of who I really like. It's funny because I feel

I heard Fleener over say it was Chris Pratt. For some reason, I feel like he has a, everyone close to me at home knows I'm a big goofball, and they think I'm really weird, which is fair. And I feel like it is a bit bipolar, which I'm trying not to be. But I feel like Chris Pratt can be really serious and a complete goofball at the same time. Okay.

And so I feel like he'd be kind of someone that would do a good job of playing my role. Oh, who did you get it? Chris Pratt's going to be busy. I had one that might fit this to a T. I had James Franco, because he could be weird as shit. Yeah, he's also... He's a little too out there in space at times.

I feel like he's gone even a weirder direction. You know what I mean? Like Shiloh-buff-esque. He's different, yeah. He has some strange views, but I could see that as well. And the looks are like somewhat, you know. I'll take that. Yeah.

That's, I mean... That's solid. One, he can play golf and two, I feel like he can play any role as well. Michael Pena. That's J.J. Spons look alike, but I'm a big Michael Pena guy. So far there have me... He can be serious, too. So far there have me, scripts made him.

Yeah, I was my name. I was waiting for you. I said, get it. Get it. I can see you going there. I said, say it. Michael, Panyi, if he has a choice, I think he's going to go

with the Xander shot play movie. All right, Michael, we got two roles for you here. Pick one of me. All right, next one. All right, you got your headphones on while you're practicing. Who are you listening to? I don't listen to music when I'm practicing. Okay, that was a shit.

Good question, please. All right. All right, you're in your car listening to music. Good job, Drew. You're in your car. If you're ever listening to music at any point in your day, who you listen to? I go through spurts where I listen to a genre. I'll go anywhere from kind of older rock to Motown.

My putting coach, and I actually lied. I apologize. It's true. My putting coach always has some form of like 90s or 80s rap, anything from like Tribe or special ed, which is really random, but on his Spotify up to Motown. So he kind of got me hooked on that. So when we're putting, he'll play Motown or some old school rap. All right.

And when I'm on my own, I kind of adopted some of it to where I'll listen to some Motown or old school rap or rock or anything. But I do go kind of like by genre. Okay. So you go on a little phases. Phases for sure. I don't like, you know, I'm not one to say like I'll listen to anything. I do listen to like certain genres in bulks and then I get over it and then I move along. Okay.

Fair enough. All right. Next question. Whose money do you enjoy spending more? Charlie Hoffman's or Phil Miclinson's? Charlie Hoffman's not even close. There's a lot less. because he's scared to play for a lot, but

Charlie's is nice. Okay, follow up to that. We're on the same page here. What would be more lucrative for you, winning the FedEx Cup or playing against Charlie Hoffman every day? You could quit the tour and just play Charlie every day. If we set the price, I mean, hey, he is playing some of his best golf right now. He is playing nice.

He's playing good. But eight months ago or a year ago, before he started working with Blackburn, if we could have set the price to the right amount, we're taking the Charlie Hoffman. out here. Yeah, he went up to travel, do all that. He has gone on record and told us, he's like, I don't want to play him anymore when I'm at home because every week I give him an envelope full of cash. He goes, I shoot 67. He shoots 61 every time we shoot up because I can't beat the guy. So if you just want to like adjust that, put an asterisk by what he said, I shoot like,

I mean, he was shooting 73, 72, 71. But the days where he shot 67, I'd shoot 63, I would grab his cash with a big smile. Well, I talked to Phil about it last week too, and he even agreed. He goes, I don't want any part of him when we're home. Phil's gone to bad. He's gotten a bad stretch. I mean, the farms, I don't know if you've played there, it's a tight course. And Phil's best move is if I hit a ball out of the farms, Phil always brings his driver and his iron, like a two iron. And I'll just see Phil, as soon as my ball hits Bush, he just throws his driver and grabs his two iron.

I look at him, I go, really? Phil, maybe we should go play the grand. That's more at your place. Who's the worst loser between those two? When you take money from them, who takes it worse? I mean, neither of them. Phil just wants to keep going. Big bank take a little bank is a correct mentality.

So, of course, if he raised his stakes and kept going, I mean, it's well said. Yeah, Big Bang take a little bank. Okay. I thought Charlie would for sure be the worst loser. Charlie just grins it off and goes and has wine later on, you know what I mean? Perfect. Yeah.

Goes and flies around. That does what he does. Find someone else to do. All right. Next question. As you know, I don't really hit it very far. You don't know any of those illegal drivers laying around. Maybe I could borrow one?

No. Yeah. I mean, unfortunately, the RNA did take one of mine, but I have a whole stash. I think the best part about that is they made you take that one out of play, and then the backup you put in was actually faster. I don't even know. It's funny, though, this year, for whatever reason, I'm hitting it further. And so I've got my blood drawn. I've had a urine sample.

My driver got checked at Torrey. I'm like, they're coming after me, and I'm like, just let the little guy hit it far sometimes. You know what I mean? Yeah, can a fella hit some bombs here without getting full record, fam? I went to Calaway a couple months ago. I was like, give me one of Zanders. Those things seem to go pretty far. The one went three feet further, apparently.

I don't know. Tough break. Tough break. All right. I'll just stick to my own driver. Yeah, you're good. Straight to game, Colt. Keep stretching it out.

48, 49. All right, if you were playing an alternate shot match with your life on the line, and you could pick any American to be your partner, who do you want? Patrick, can't like. You guys feel like you just get a little too fired up at times? We think that's a good thing. We got a reel. We got a reel it in.

We have our ups and downs and. I mean, we'll take turns snapping clubs here and there, but... Yeah. Pat, yeah, our games are really compatible. His, if you guys know numbers, his all-around stats are unbelievable. He was leading the tour in all-around for, I think, by a lot two years ago or a year ago. So, I mean, I was joking. In Louisiana, we were playing alternate ball.

And, you know, I hit a chip to, like, seven feet, you know, which for me is pretty standard. And every time he chipped, he put me to, like, this water bottle, you know what I mean? you know two and a half three inches or whatever and every time like he missed a couple seven footers and he's like i'm sorry i'm like no i'm sorry i put you to seven feet like this is where i live pat it's like you wonder why i put so well it's because i have to constantly leave myself seven to nine feet when i chip it's a tough life i live welcome to my world patty exactly yeah exactly yeah all right this leads great to the next question as well because you and patrick can't like to play a little gin against each other i heard y'all might have played just for like

14 straight hours on a plane ride one time. Lifetime. Who's up in Jen? Oh, I quit. Really? So he's always going to be up. It's not, for whatever reason, for whatever reason, I was up. We played for nine hours on the way there, and I was up for some reason. Everyone's like, Pat's really good. And I was getting really good cards, and I was intentionally playing kind of funky because I knew it'd be unorthodox. And he was kind of rattled. You know what I mean? And of course, his approach to everything, you know, the longer you put yourself in a position, the better it's going to get if you are better than an individual, which is very true. I guess it wasn't very long.

It only took 13 hours for him to absolutely flip and then almost double what I owed him. Or what he owed me. So he'll be up forever because I told him I quit. Perfect. Who are some other gin players on tour? I heard that Andy Barnes is actually really good. All the caddies claim they're good stuff, but who knows if they actually are. I don't really know.

I don't know if you know this. Phil will claim he's pretty good. Which is hard to believe. You know, it is hard to believe. might make a commercial about it too yeah maybe you should get him on the gin table who's that Phil had some nice luck with him there I will I will we'll stick to the golf okay like I said it could be another big bank little bank situation it would definitely be that I'm not good at cards but golf I'm only good at one thing guys we'll stick to it if you're the little bank shit

we got stressed well you spill as an example yeah true good point all right next question if you could spend the day getting to know one celebrity who you don't already know could be athlete celebrity whatever, who would you pick? All these celebrity questions. Getting to know one celebrity? Yeah, just the guy that you're like, that looks cool, want to hang out with him. Or her.

Let's see. This is stuff I don't think about ever. These are tricky. I'm not really a celebrity guy. Like I said, I try to be consistent across the board. I'm not really, you know, I don't try and shine too bright. Right. Who would I like to know?

It got to be some sort of athlete. The likes of anyone that was at the top of of their game, I guess, would be Michael Jordan is prime, a tennis player, even something like Lewis Hamilton, honestly. I know his car is probably fast than everyone else's, that's why he wins a lot, but he's obviously really good.

Anyone that was Roger Federer, Nadal, any one of those guys who were at the top and maintained at the top is someone that I would like to, so I guess I don't know, I'd consider them celebrities, but then it's not going to be... Yeah, Federer would be sweet. It's not going to be some, you know,

movie star or something like that. Yeah, I threw an athlete in the mix, yeah, it would have to be some, someone, some athlete that was at the top of their game and I'd want to ask them sort of their mentality what they did and sort of, you know, any tricks up their sleeve that, you know, helped them besides working really hard. I've heard that to win too many times. Do you, do you get stopped in public very often? Like, not out of the golf term, obviously, that's bad. No, a few times. You know what I mean? My, my age range is really, I tell my girl not to worry at all. My age

is like, you know, your guys' age, you know, like, how old are you guys, like 40? Super young. 30, 35 or 40-year-old guys is sort of like, only people who recognize me, so I tell my girl not to worry at all. Yeah. He's not near as nice as everybody thinks. I'm starting to realize that. He's not near as nice. He's not getting that inside peak at Xander they wanted.

He's been this enigma for so long now. Now we're figuring it out. All right. Last question. You started off, as we mentioned earlier, at Long Beach State, under the guidance. John Ballinger kind of took you under his wing a little bit. Now you get to the PJ tour and you got Charlie Hoffman, you know, kind of as a mentor. How in the hell are you so successful?

I don't know. When do you think it'll end? So you didn't listen to anything they said, obviously. Backs against the wall for sure. Oh, my God, it's incredible. We got way too much love on this show. He did. We're going to chop off.

Just edit it out. Yeah, we will. Let's change everyone to Segal, too, instead of saying, Charlie. I like Segal. It should be, I heard you said it on air, actually. I said it on air Sunday at Tampa. You didn't explain why it's Segal, though? I did.

On air? We were in commercial. Okay. We were in commercial. And they said, Colt, did you see the notes today? And I was like, no, I don't really read the notes. But it says next to Charlie's name, it lists all his accomplishment stats and also says, known as Siegel because he likes to give crap to all the PGA tour players.

And I'm like, well, since it's in the notes, can I use it? They're like, yeah, just think of a classy way to kind of say it. And I was like, I kind of panicked and we had him on the first toll. And I was like, oh, Charlie Hoffman, known as Segal to his fellow PGA tour players because he likes to fly around and just try to ruin everyone's day. That's not bad. Yeah, it worked out. I would have just been like, you know, what Siegles normally do. They smell terrible and they fly around and do one thing.

That's it. He does smell terrible, too. But is there a better fitting nickname on the PJ tour? Not at all. I don't even know what's like second. Maybe Gary Matthews is the animal just because he's an animal. Yeah, that's not even that cool, though. It's a scary.

It's scary. That's not even that cool, dude. But he embraces it. He was walking off the first tee at Tampa, and I'm up in the fairway. I mean, he's 250 yards away from me. I look up and he just coming down the first fairway. Charlie? Oh, yeah.

He loves it. Oh, for sure. Yeah, he embraces it. Awesome. Zander, well, thank you so much, my man. This has been great. Yeah. Thanks for having me, guys.

Yeah. All right, well, that was Sanders Schaplay on golf subpar. Slease. I love that he took a few shots at you. Right off the jump. It's open season right now. I'm just taking it left and right. Windham obviously fed him a little. This was way before even the caddying situation, but Wyndham was giving him a little juice there. I was like, I told you going in. I was like, I don't know, man. Like, you know, I like to joke around and have fun. I don't know how this will go over? He's like, no, dude, he's great. He'll have a good time. And we talked before we started recording. I was like, oh, this guy's great. And then all of a sudden right out of the gate, bam. Hey, please, by the way. And then I was like, oh, this is going to be fun.

that. I mean, how could you not think he would have a little bit of ammo? I mean, he plays golf with Charlie Hoffman and Phil Mickelson all the time. You have thin skin or don't have anything to fire back at those guys. You're going to get ran over. That's true. And he might be good enough that he doesn't have to say anything because Charlie won't even gamble with him anymore. Phil's talking about, you know, how much he loses to him right now. I mean, this kid is so good. And he's in the hunt so often that he probably, you know, he kind of gets the rap like you don't win as much as you should. But he's just, he's up there so often. I mean, it's a joke how many times he puts himself in contention each year. Yeah. And he holds it together so.

well in the course even when things aren't going his way and even after in the interviews. I mean, I like the one where he said like five days after, I believe it was Hawaii. He was brushing his teeth. He just looked himself in the mirror and he just started dog cussing himself. He's like, get it together. Like I was like, I mean, but he's so competitive. I think you've got to have that. I mean, he's got that fire that burns inside him.

But he is just, I mean, I don't know if you consider him a superstar yet. I mean, he's top five in the world. He hadn't won a major, but he, in my mind, he is a superstar. If you don't consider him one, he's damn sure going to be one. Yeah, he's top five in the world. I think that he's at the tip of the iceberg right now in his career. I think his golf game is one of the most enviable. It looks so simple, so easy.

There's nothing bad. I mean, he talked about his short game, maybe the one area that he needs to clean up a bit. I guess when you hit it as well as he does, you know, you don't have to chip all that much. So maybe it's easy to neglect it. But also a really cool story from him, like not even seeing his golf swing for so long, too. I think so many young guys can get caught up and they can get with teachers that want him perfect positions, perfect, all this stuff. And you can kind of strip some of the feel and the DNA away from a player. kudos to him and his dad for kind of keeping him away for that for a while. And he just seems like

he keeps the game so simple. Like nothing's really ever way off on Xander's game, ever. I mean, the one time he was actually going to miss a cut, I saved his ass. He owes you. Torrey Pines, you know, find his ball 30 seconds to go on the 35th hole. Look like he's going to miss cut in his hometown at Torrey Pines. I find the ball gets up and down, makes the cut on the number. Boom, tied for second after a hot weekend, 435,000, something like that. Maybe a little kickback. Yeah, maybe a Lambo. Give me a Lambo, and he's still got a couple hundred, to play with, you know? What's the worst that could happen? But if, I mean, it's just hard not to root for this guy. He's just so nice. He's fun.

He's so talented. I mean, he's just, he's going to win a major at some point. Yeah. And I think you can mistake the, you know, his kindness for weakening. Like, he's a soft-spoken guy. He doesn't get out there. Uh-uh. I think he wants to rip your face off, stomp on it, and take your heart. And I think he'll be a beast that rider cups for a long time to come. And it's just a guy that will just wear you out, Tita Green, just kill you. I think you could just suffocate guys in match. He could do us all in favor and rip Charlie Hoffman's face off and stomp on it. Or maybe he already did. That's why he looks like that.

Maybe wait one week because we're about to get to our picks here, our gambling picks. Maybe wait one week and then rip his face off. Okay, okay. Well, we're heading into the memorial. Charles Schwab Challenge, first off, you didn't even pick your own guy, which you had a decent week if you went tied for 20th. But that's embarrassing. You don't even back yourself. You went with Colin Morcala.

Correct. He finished tied for 14th, along with my guy, Abe Anseru. I got lucky as shit. I thought he was going to miss the cut. Got very lucky just sneak in the weekend. Had a nice weekend. tied for 14th as well. So I believe I, producer Mark, I still have a decent little size lead.

Yeah, with both those T-14s, you each grabbed $125,625, leaving the lead at $311,998. Okay. Not that much. It's not that much. It can switch. All right. We're on to the memorial.

Jack's Place, which it's going to be a new Jack's Place, got 18 new greens, changed up a few of the holes, a little bit of a redesign. I'm interested to see where you go with this one. Yeah, don't know exactly what to expect out there other than it's probably going to be tough. It's Jack's place. He doesn't like seeing the score is crazy. We saw that last year, but I mentioned maybe Xanderhold off a week before he ripped Charlie Hoffman's face up. And that's why because I'm going with our favorite ocean-dwelling bird this week.

Charlie Hoffman is my pick. Looking at his play recently, man, dude, he's got five straight top 20s, seven of his last eight top 20s, and his top 10 in strokes gained approach and Tida Green in his last 36 rounds. He's playing really good. I don't know whether I've missed the wave already, and I should have taken. taking him before and hopped on that or if there's still some left but he's only on his third week in a row a lot of these guys like wind him for instance he playing a seventh straight week some of these guys are on a long stretch right now he's only on his third and man I mean he hadn't played bad

in a long time so I'm gonna go a little maybe you know maybe not top tier here the top 10 in the world type guy but I'll go with uh Charles this week at memorial and I talked to him last week I was like you know you're playing great and it pains me to say that and I don't want to root against him because I love his team like I love Andy Barnes as caddy his coach Mark Blackburn I was like I wish somehow they could still make money and you could still suck, but it's just not really that possible. But he is playing some great golf. I don't know if it's...

62 on Saturday out there at Colonia this week. Friday. I'm sorry. Yeah, that was nasty. Yeah, he's been playing three out of four rounds really well. He's just got to get them all together. All right. I'm going to go with a guy who's won around this golf course.

Might not have been at the Memorial. Different tournament. But he's won at Mirfield Village. I think, you know, his putting is always the issue. You took him last week. I'm going to take him this week. Here at Mirfield Village, I think the greens are so tough to put that not a lot of people just make it from everywhere. And I think people rely on their ball striking a lot around here.

Fairways aren't that narrow. You've got to hit precise irons to leave yourself chances. Nobody hits their irons better than Collin Moracawa. I'm going to go ahead and burn him here at the Memorial. It's a big purse. Let's see what Calamorcau is next week. I think you're right. I think the greens are so hard to putt that kind of nullify is almost great putters.

I mean like Cantlay, Rom, Moracow. Those are guys that have all won here. You don't really think of any of those guys like the greatest. I mean, not bad putters, but not the best. It's more just like Tita Green, I feel like. So I think you got to just strike the nug. All right. Well, here's to a good week at the Memorial.

Next week, we got our man, HV3, Harold Varner III. We'll sit down with us on golf subpar. Everyone have a great week. We'll talk to you next week.