WHOOP Podcast - Inside Rory McIlroy’s Training, Recovery, and Data-Driven Golf Strategy

Episode Date: April 9, 2025

On this episode of the WHOOP Podcast, WHOOP Founder and CEO Will Ahmed is joined by Pro Golfer, Rory McIlroy. Rory is a four-time Major Champion and 28 time PGA Tour Winner. Will and Rory sit down ahead of Augusta to discuss Rory’s mentality throughout the 2025 season so far (00:51), staying resilient on the green (01:53), perceiving pressure as a privilege (03:24), and using visualization to Rory’s advantage (06:42). Rory explains how breathwork helps him with first tee nerves and calming his parasympathetic nervous system (12:18). Will and Rory review Rory’s WHOOP data (15:12) and the habit changes Rory has implemented to dial in for competition (17:21). This episode breaks down the lead up to a tournament like the Masters (19:07), longevity secrets (26:28), and expectations going into Augusta (32:17). Rory details the pressure of the Masters (34:44), why less is more (36:02), and what to expect from the course (37:31). Will rounds out the interview with Rory’s insights on LIV golf league (40:25) and facing adversity in the sport of golf (40:25).Catch Rory in the Masters on April 10-13.Follow Rory McIlroy:InstagramXFacebookSupport the showFollow WHOOP: www.whoop.com Trial WHOOP for Free Instagram TikTok YouTube X Facebook LinkedIn Follow Will Ahmed: Instagram X LinkedIn Follow Kristen Holmes: Instagram LinkedIn Follow Emily Capodilupo: LinkedIn

I've loved Augusta since the first time I laid eyes on it back in 2009, so whatever, 16 years ago when I played my first one. The course sets up well for me. I love the place. I've had chances there, you know, and it goes back to what we said previously is, you know, every time that I've been there and I've had a chance, I've learned something different. I had a chance in 2011, didn't quite happen, played in the final group in 2018, played in the final group in the third round in 2016, finished second in 2022. to, you know, so I've had, I've had chances, but I feel like I'm getting closer to doing it. It's an amazing opportunity to join that list that you mentioned there. These mythical figures in the game of golf,

if I were able to join them, that would be absolutely incredible. And I feel like this year, I've got just as good of a chance as I've had any of the other years. All right, Roars. How are you doing? I know, it's been a while. I know, appreciate you doing this.

So it's been quite a few years since we've done one of these together. A lot's happened. But I think most recently, you just won Players' Championship. Yeah, it's been a great start of the year. You know, I felt like I got a little bit of momentum coming out of the 24 season. You know, I did some good work on my game in sort of the fall, like October, November time, started to see some good results. And then I've been able to carry that into the first few months of this year.

Great win a pebble in sort of end of January. And then, yeah, you know, a great win at the players, which was, you know, it's always, it's always nice to start the year with that sort of momentum, especially going into, like, the major season. You know, you really want to have your game peak between April and August. That's really the time where you want to play your best golf. But I think to start the way I have this year, it's been really good to see and obviously gives me a lot of confidence going into, you know, this sort of vital time in our season. Yeah, and, I mean, it seemed to me like you won that tournament with, I don't know, maybe you're beautiful. plus game? Sometimes I feel like that's being disrespectful to like the other players in the theater. Sure, but you didn't say it, I said it. Yeah, I definitely didn't feel like I played my

best golf, but I played good enough to get the job done. You know, usually when I win golf tournaments, I win by dominating off the tee, ball striking it really well. I can haul in a few putts here and there when I needed to. It felt like at the players, I won with sort of my attitude and my mindset and my short game. You know, I chipped and putted really well that week. A lot of like recovery shots I played really, really well. So it wasn't, whenever you think about when I win a golf tournament, it wasn't like a typical win for me. But I think that's a really good thing because it shows that even if some parts of my game

aren't firing 100%, I can fall back on other parts to sort of make up for it. In a way, it seems like it would be confidence boosting to win the tournament, even if you didn't feel like you played the perfect, you know, round to Roy McElroy standards. Yeah, I think it's a confidence boost knowing that when I step on of the tea at any tournament, I don't have to play my absolute best to win. And also it gives you like a level of comfort knowing that, okay, well, if things maybe don't go the way you want to, you're going to be able to figure it out and you're going to be able to do other stuff to, you know, as I said, to like make up for the fact that

maybe one part of your game isn't on that day. So, you know, that, you know, I talk about being a much more complete golfer now than I was a few years ago. And I think wins like at the players championship this year sort of invalidate that. You mentioned during a press conference that you view pressure as a privilege. What does that mean to you? I think it just means that I don't see the point in putting all this time and effort into what I do and into my career and trying to master my craft if I don't get to prove to myself that I can do it

under the most intense pressure and in the biggest moments in our game. So why do I spend hours a day doing this if I can't get to the arena of where I want to get to and not see what I'm made of. I think that's the thing. So, you know, there's no pressure when you just finish 30th every week. You know, you coast along, and I don't want to do that.

That's not the reason that I play the game. It's not the reason that I dedicate so much time to it. So I think that's what I mean when pressure is a privilege. It's awesome to be in those environments. And, you know, being in those environments more often, it really sort of lets you know where your game is and what you need to work on. And I've been in those environments a lot over the last few years.

sometimes I've succeeded and sometimes I've failed, but the failures are also good because you go back to the drawing board and you understand why didn't it work out for you, what do you need to do differently next time? And that's a whole evolving process that I'm never going to figure this game out. I will try my best to get as close as possible,

but there's always things that you can keep learning. Well, you had a huge moment on the 18th hole of your final round. you were 73 feet for Birdie, really there you're probably thinking about just making a two-putt. And you lag it to about four feet. That was a big four-footer. And plus, to your point about, you know, overcoming challenges in your career, like you had a four-footer at the U.S. Open. And what's going through your mind at that moment?

Are you realizing sort of the background of that moment? Are you just thinking, I just got to make a four-footer? Yeah, I get it on the green, and it wasn't the best second shot. and I knew that I, you know, as you said, like, I'm not trying to hold that put. I'm just trying to get it up there somewhere close, knocking the second putt and hopefully be in a playoff. So, yeah, I hit the first putt. Yeah, it was probably like five feet, I would say.

And which is still, like, you know, a very makeable putt. And at the moment, I, the light was fading too. So I was, again, like, you hear people say this, but I was just, I was really into my process. I was trying to read the put. I was trying to see if there was any sort of movement in it. I couldn't, like I didn't see a whole lot. I thought if anything, if I hit it straight, it might just creep in the left side of the hole.

So I was like, okay, I'm going to just hit this straight and firm. And if anything, it moved right and caught the right edge of the hole. So I'm glad I give it enough speed to hold on. But I think to have the clarity of thought to think about not just the speed, but think about the, you know, think about the line, think about the speed, but also like, well, I'm just going to take that very, out of it and hit a little harder and make sure that this ball isn't going to break out of the hole. So that's all I was thinking about at the time.

But then obviously once you hold the put, you start to think about, well, geez, I'm glad I hold that because the narrative that had been building up since the U.S. Open last year, not that it completely goes away, but it certainly quietens the noise around that a little bit. You just felt very present in that moment. Like you wouldn't have a flashback to a prior tournament or anything like that? No, I think you never really know what's going to pop into your mind at any given point. But I think when something undesirable pops into your mind, that's when you just have to replace that with a better thought

and visualize the ball going in the hole. Or visualize, you know, sometimes when I'm reading a putt, I see myself over the put and hitting the put and the ball going in the hole. Like, to me, that's a big visualization key to me. In the third person. In the third person. So I see myself and I see myself, you know, making a swing or making a stroke. That's a big thing for me. So if something does pop into your head of like a flashback to a certain moment that you haven't done what you've wanted to, just replace it with, you know, with that visualization. And that's something that works well for me.

And you'll do it right before a shot. Yeah. So and usually like over if I'm unsure, if I'm in two minds about what shot to hit. If I'm unsure of reading a put, like a line on a put, it's more of those sorts of moments. It just sort of gives me clarity to decide, okay, this is what I'm going to do. I'd rather be decisive and be wrong than be indecisive and be right. You're going to more times than not hit a better golf shot if you're decisive, even if you don't necessarily make the right choice. That reminds me of something you told me about putting, which is that you actually feel

like 90% of putts, at least for you, almost happened before you ever hit the putt. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think the putter moves this much. There's not a ton that can go wrong in that amount of time. So to me, it's all about the skill of hitting a putt is hitting it at the right speed and on the right line and marrying those two things up and getting into that sort of flow state. So to me, all of that stuff happens before you even hit the put. So that's where I talk about 90% of a put and the work that you're doing on it happens even before the ball is struck and then if you're in a really good mindset or a really good frame of mind before you hit it

it just makes it you know your chances of pulling that put so much more and so when you think back on a round will you replay in your mind like did I did I have the right strategy going into a specific put or a specific shot yeah when I think back about rounds of golf that I play I think all of my bad shots or the shots that I don't go the way I want them to. It's more so to do with the choices I make before I even pull the club back. So it's decision making or a little bit of strategy or course management or like misreading the wind or why did I try to hit that shot? Why didn't I try to hit something else? And I don't know if that's a to take blame away from myself in the

physical sense and be like, well, I made a good swing or I may, you know, because most of the times when I don't do what I want to do, it's because of not being as committed as I should be before I hit that golf shot. So that to me is a huge thing. If I'm fully committed over every shot that I hit in a round of golf, it'll usually end up being a good round. On the topic of visualization, I had an interesting interview with Alex Honnold, who famously scaled El Capiton without a rope.

What I expected him to say about visualization is that he would just imagine all of the things going right. And in fact, he was someone who would visualize all the things going wrong, too. Like, he would picture all the different ways he could die. And he would picture in great detail, like dying. And so I'm curious for you, when you're thinking about, you know, an upcoming masters or a big tournament or a big shot, like, will you ever go there, like, you know, missing short putts and how do you come back and that sort of thing? Or do you try to have more of a positive reinforcement?

So to me, I think it's, I say this all the time, it's counterintuitive to a lot of people to do this. but I do, if you're trying to overcome anxiety or nerves around performance, I do try to think about, well, what's the worst that could happen? And I'm not going to die on the golf course, thankfully. So, you know, I have a much easier job than Alex has. But, like, I used to have, like, first T nerves, like, big time. I would struggle on the first T. And so I would say to myself, well, what's the worst that could happen?

So you hit it in the trees. Okay, then what do you do? You go up there and you figure it out. you're skillful enough to hit a punch shot out of the trees and get it up to the green and get it up and down and make a power move on. So I would always, for whatever reason, imagining like the worst case scenario give me a level of comfort because I felt like any worst case scenario that I could bring up in my head, I'll be able to deal with. And so I can see where Alex comes from, like not to the degree of imagining dying.

But I do, I do that all the time. And it gives you, it gives you, it gives you, it gives you, you especially on the first tea for me because when you as you know if you get nervous on the golf course you get tight and you get like guidey and and so it gives me a sense of freedom and like if I can swing free that's when I play my best golf so whatever thought process I need to get into to get there whether that's imagining the worst case scenario but I also have like there's positive enforcement to reinforcement too I think I'm not standing behind a tea shot and visualizing myself hit a bad shot.

Like, I'm visualizing myself hitting it where I want to. But I think just even before I get to that point, thinking, well, what's the worst that can happen? And then if the worst that can happen isn't that bad, it's like, well, that's okay. It's interesting just to hear you talk about having first-t nerves, you know, because, like, as someone watching you, that doesn't seem like something that's ever present.

I think one thing people underestimate is the degree to which professional athletes are good at masking the nerves that they're feeling. masking it from the outside, but also managing it from the inside. Yeah, exactly. So for me, I think we've talked about this before, but like I'm a terrible mouth breather. Like I breathe a lot through my mouth. So whenever I feel that way, I just remind myself to keep my mouth shut. Just breathe through my nose.

Totally. It just puts me in a more of a parasympathetic state, I guess. And that is a way that I can get my heart rate to calm down and to feel a little more calm about everything. Yeah, it's like when I'm in the final round of a big tournament and like I'm on the back nine, like the one thing I try to do is like even walking between shots is I just try to keep my mouth closed and just breathe through my nose. So you just focus a lot on your breathing.

Yeah. Will you focus on how long you inhale and exhale for? Most important thing when you're performing for me is just mouth closed. Like I do breathing exercises outside of the golf course and whether it be after a gym session or before I go to bed or whatever it is. And that, then you obviously, if it's four in or six out, whatever type of breathing that you're doing. I think when you're in a more controlled environment, I think you can start to count the seconds

a little bit easier and stuff, but whenever I'm in that state on the golf course and there's pressure and there's everything going on, I think for me, this simple key of just keeping my mouth closed is a good one. Does a lot. And for people listening to this and wondering what we're talking about.

So like four in and six out would mean you're inhaling for four seconds and then you're exhaling for six seconds. And by having a longer exhale, you're actually putting your body in more of a parasympathetic state, which in turn relaxes you. The opposite thing would be, you know, inhaling for, you know, a much longer period of time and exhaling short, and that would put you in like a sympathetic state and almost looks like someone's hyperventilating when they do that. So these are different techniques that obviously you've mastered.

How did you develop some of these breathing techniques? I worked with my trainer Roe on a lot of that stuff. He's worked with Navy SEALs before that have to, you know, they have to alter their state a lot if they're going in for a mission or, you know, they don't know when they're going to have to be ready to do certain things. So, you know, I've gained a lot of knowledge through that from him and the work that he's done with the SEALs. He would primarily want me to do like two sessions a day, like one, like after my

gym session, maybe one before I go to bed at night. If I get one in a day, it's a good way. That's a win. That's a win for me. But every little helps. And again, it's all about just trying to build those really good habits. And since I started to do this four or five years ago, it's made a huge difference. Let's talk about just fitness and training a little bit.

You've gone from a resting heart rate of about 55 beats per minute in January to down to 49 in March. Your recoveries up from being kind of in the low. 60s to now being on average 74% on whoop your sleep's close to 90% right now you're getting over seven and a half hours looks like you're turning a gear here yeah I think as well you know from the start of the year you go over the Christmas period and you're maybe you know that's our off-season so maybe not quite as disciplined as you are throughout the season maybe not practicing the habits that you should practice every day you're still trying to you know get by and

and whatever but yeah I think once for me once the turn of the year oh I think it's the same for everyone once the turn of the year comes around you you sort of try to dial it back in a little bit but yeah you know I look I've been wearing whip now for like six years and like I know like you know you know when you're doing the right things and you know when you're not and like obviously it's great to have the whip tell you that you're you know you're on the right track but at this point it's like I know if I do X Y and Z then you know unless I'm sick, I'm going to get a good recovery. So look, I think as well, like I'm not as much as I like to think I'm 25. I'm 35. I'm not one of the younger guys anymore. So a lot of these little

habits that that help along the way, I think for me, I don't maybe have the buffer that I used to have 10 years ago. So I have to be really disciplined about everything that I do. And especially weeks where I'm at golf tournaments, weeks where I'm looking to perform at the at the highest level. You know, I just, I maybe just have to be a little more discipline now than I was 10 years ago because, you know, time catches up with you. And I'm not saying I feel just as good now as I did at 25, but I think that's because of all the things that I try to put in place to make sure that I wake up every day feeling rested and recovered and ready to go. What are some of those things? What are some of those habits when you want to be really dialed?

So I would say caffeine consumption, you know, gets cut off at like 2 p.m. for me. So that's sort of when I'm trying to eat, you know, at least two hours before bedtime. You know, I'm taking magnesium and thionine and, you know, the things that I feel like I need to do are supplements that I need to take before going to bed to just put me in a relaxed state. Blue light blocking glasses go on around 5 or 6 p.m. Those are great. And then sometimes I'll do, I'll do like some heat. So whether it's like an Epsom salts bath or sauna, I'll try to do that at night time.

And that's really it. I mean, sometimes you don't get all of those things in. But I think for me, magnesium thane, blue light blocking glasses, and then, you know, making sure that the room is pretty cold before going to sleep. Like those are all the things that, yeah, exactly. So if I can at least get, you know, two-thirds or three-quarters of those little habits dialed in, you know, I know I'm going to have a pretty good night's rest. What's up, folks, if you are enjoying this podcast or if you care about health, performance, fitness, you may really enjoy getting a whoop.

That's right. You can check out whoop at whoop.com. It measures everything around sleep, recovery, strain. and you can now sign up for free for 30 days. So you'll literally get the high performance wearable in the mail for free. You get to try it for 30 days, see whether you want to be a member. And that is just at whoop.com. Back to the guests.

The week of a major or a big tournament, what will you do from a fitness standpoint? So Monday through Wednesday, which are like our practice days, I try to get two really good sessions in. So I'll get a strength session and an explosive session. And then once, and then maybe like a, I'd say Monday is strength usually. Tuesday is like more of a practice day, so golf day. I might do just some like very basic mobility stuff in the gym to warm up. And then Wednesday would be like the explosive day.

And what's explosive? So box jumps, medicine ball throws, lighter loads, but moving. them faster. So the one thing that I've prided myself on in my career is I've, you know, as I've gotten older, my swing speed's gotten faster. Which is amazing. Which is, yeah, which I, you know, I, again, I'm trying to counteract that time component of, you know, time catches up with every athlete at some point. So I'm just trying to push that down the tracks as much as possible. So that's really more of, you know, moving those loads fast and trying to keep my, my swing speed because it's such an important part of our game, especially, you know,

You've got these 20, 21 year olds coming out that are hitting at miles and I'm up here at 35 and if I feel like I can keep up with them, plus all the experience that I've had and sort of all of the things that I've been able to learn along the way, I feel like I've still got, if I can keep up with them off the tea, I mean, I feel like I've gotten advantage in the other things. So that's really important. And then... And just on the swing speed, do you feel like you're, do you feel like you're swinging faster or like trying to swing faster or does it feel like you're swinging the same speed as you did when you were younger, but it just is faster.

Yeah, so I'm trying to, it's not like I'm trying to swing out of my shoes. Yeah, I maybe do that once a week to try to, like shock the system. Shock the system, sort of have your nervous system get used to what that feels like. But yeah, so I'll swing normally, and my normal swing 10 years ago was maybe 120 miles an hour, and my normal swing now is like 125, 126. And if you're trying to really juice it? 1.30. Yeah.

Yeah. So, you know, I can, I can get it up there if I really want. to. Does the ball speed proportionally get that much faster too? Yeah, so for every one mile an hour of club head speed, it's about two and a half miles an hour of ball speed. Okay. So it's a, it's a big difference. So your ball speed at 125 would be what versus 130? So ball speed at 125 is usually around like 185, 186 and then at 130 you're up at like 192, 193. And how far can that make the ball go. So if you get the right launch conditions, so like speed is one thing, but then the spin and the launch angle are others. But if you like optimize your spin and

your launch with a 192 mile an hour ball speed, you're looking the ball going 340 in the air, probably running out to 360. Wow. Yeah. That's badass. Yeah. Okay, so let's go back to to a week at a major in your fitness. So Wednesday's explosive. Yeah, Wednesday's explosive. And then when I do my warm-ups Thursday through Sunday, I'll do, they'll probably go Thursday and Saturday will be strength. It'll just be like a mini version of what I did on Monday. So I don't do anything different. I do the same loads. I just do less volume. So if I'm doing like Bulgarian split squats on Monday, I'll do the same thing on Thursday with the same load, but instead of doing four or five sets, I'll do two sets. So it's really just to wake, again, wake the nervous system up

and sort of get that effect. And will you do that even if you have like a 7 a.m. tea time? Yeah. So you'll just get up really early. Yeah, so I get to the golf course about three hours before. And if we do have a cold plunge there, I'll usually start the day with getting in there for three or four minutes. Which is great.

Which is awesome. And then about two and a half hours before my tea time, I'll get in the gym and do my, like, whatever exercises, like I have to go through that day. then it's usually some breakfast and then you know hit the range putting green whatever and you know that three hours actually can go pretty quick that's like I've got my routine so dialed in it's like if I don't get those three hours before my tea time I feel rushed and I feel like I can't I think as well like a lot of athletes they're so routine based and like if they don't check the boxes

they don't feel ready so I just want to feel like I check all the boxes before I go out to play And after a round, any type of cool down or stretching, or is it mostly just like... No, sometimes, if I feel like I need to hit balls, I can go and hit some balls and whatever. And then, yeah, sometimes. So for me, everyone's got their little problem areas or areas they need to maybe put a bit more focus and attention on. So I'll either do some stuff with, like, I've got one of those soul rights or so-as things. So-O-O-S, yeah. Yeah, so I sometimes can get, especially with a lot of the stuff I'm doing, my golf swing, that can get really tight.

So that's an area of focus that I'll, but it's easy. I lie on that and watch TV or whatever it is, but I know that I'm doing some good stuff. And then sometimes I'll get some physical therapy or like massage just to, especially at like a place like Augusta where it's a pretty hilly walk and your legs can feel pretty heavy at the end of the day, just sort of getting your legs flushed out at the end of the day or wearing. Norma Tech books or whatever it is. Like that definitely helps as well. Do you ever find yourself watching highlights of your own round or even like the highlights of the tournament or are you trying to just like move on?

Sometimes I do, but I think that's more because of ill discipline rather than, I'd rather not. It's better not. It's way better not too because I'd much remember my round through my own eyes than through watching on TV. I learned that lesson pretty, like it was a hard lesson. So when I won the US Open in 2011, like it was my first major and like I was so excited and the next week I was off and I watched all of it back.

But because of that, what's this 14 years on from that, all I can remember from that week on the golf course is the visual of the TV and not actually of what I experienced through my own eyes. Oh, that's interesting. Like it changed your memory. Yeah, yeah, it did. So I learned a hard lesson from then where it's like I really shouldn't watch myself play on TV. or watch highlights because it just blurs my memory of what I actually felt and seen that day

through my own eyes. So it sounds like then a bunch of the tournaments you've won or maybe all of them you haven't actually watched yourself win it, which is fascinating in a way. When I retire at some point, I'll have a chance to do it. But I think right now if I want to get the absolute best out of myself, I'd much rather remember all of those moments through my own eyes instead of watching on TV. or hearing the commentary or whatever it is. It reminds me of something Lauren Michael said.

Lord Michael's the creator of SNL, which has now been on for like 50 years. And he was talking about how he doesn't like to read books or documentaries on SNL at all because he finds that it starts to change his own memory of what actually happened. Yeah. It's sort of a, it's just a fascinating concept,

but remind me of it. Let's talk a little bit about longevity. You know, for WOOP, for the first year in the company's history, we updated our mission. And so our mission today is to unlock human performance and health span. Health span, of course, speaks to this idea that you don't want to just try to live more years. You want those years to be super high quality.

And so we're releasing a lot of functionality and technology over the coming year that's really geared towards helping people understand not just how they can perform better, but also perform better for longer and live longer. We've shared some conversations on this, but like, is that a word that's sort of ringing in the back of your mind, you know, 35 years old, longevity, do you think about it? Absolutely. And I think for me, golf and especially professional golf is skewing younger. So I was once the young kid out there and, you know, doing my thing. And now there's rarely a group that I play in where I'm not the oldest person in that group. So, yeah, longevity is

a big thing from a performance standpoint for me and something that I'm super proud of that I've, you I've been a professional golfer for nearly 18 years, and they've been 18 pretty high quality years, and I feel like I can continue that for at least another decade. But then whenever I look past that decade and I'm not performing at golf, you still want your quality of life to be as good as it possibly can be. And I think that's getting into health span and getting into being your own health advocate and having tools like WIPP to help you on that journey, I think is super important. And I'm so thankful that I've started that from an early age because people get to their 50s and 60s and now they're just discovering that.

And I'm not saying it's never too late to change your habits and become healthier and be focused on that. But for me to sort of figure that out at a pretty young age and just with the advancements in knowledge and medicine and technology and everything, that's going to be coming down the line. You know, it's going to be a pretty cool time to be alive and see how far that we can push it. It's been fascinating for me just to see longevity and health in the pop culture. I feel like in the last few years

has really started to rise and rise. And there's more books coming out and whether it's Andrew Huberman or Peter Attia or some of these popular podcasters now really talking about it. And it certainly seems like a conversation that you hear especially around golf courses even you know guys who are 50 years old six years old who want to now live longer yeah absolutely i mean i think golf is such a great game

because you can play for so long yeah and i think one of the my dad's not quite at that point yet but like there's going to get a point here in the next five to 10 years where my dad is going to start to try to shoot his age or better like that's such a cool thing in golf to be able to break your age totally if you're 70 years old and you can still cruise around and under 70 like that's like I want to do that like that's that's amazing so but yeah like a lot of these so whether it's yeah Huberman or Peter Atia I got a chance to spend some time with Peter Atia a few weeks ago and just you know just to think about the the way we viewed like health in medicine 20 years ago compared to to what it is today I mean it's it's completely different which is amazing

because I think it's it's going to help people have more knowledge about their own their own body And then, you know, because of that, they're going to be their own health advocates and they're going to be able to live hopefully better, longer lives because of it. Yeah, and it's a lot of what we're trying to do with Whoop, where if you think about the fact that today, the richest person in the world and someone maybe who makes 50K a year, they probably have the same smartphone. Yep. You know, and so there's been a certain accessibility in that lane, which you could call computing, that's been democratized to everyone. Yeah. And health and at least access to health information has lagged way before that, so to speak. And so with a sensor like whoop getting less expensive over time and being able to provide

continuous accurate health measurements, our goals that we can provide that accessibility to a much larger number of people. Which is amazing. And especially with you think about the cause of death in the world, I mean, the leading causes are everything that can are a lot of things that can be monitored by whoop right yeah whatever it may be it's amazing like for me for example like i have myocarditis and i've had it since i was 20 years old and it's something that i can i can wear whoop and i can monitor my hrv my heart rate and obviously coming down the line some other things that are really going to help me because sometimes

with myocarditis if you don't if you're not getting enough magnesium or you're not hydrated enough you know your heart can have like these little arrhythmias that can be worrisome or you can feel them or whatever it is and just to be able to keep on top of that like for me it just gives me massive peace of mind yeah and it used to be that in order to get something like that checked you'd have to go to a hospital and get connected to a you know 20 000 piece of equipment yeah and you know our responsibility is to bring that technology to your wrist and a form factor that you can use any minute of the day. Yeah, exactly, which is amazing. I mean, just to think about where, yeah, where we were 20 years ago compared to today and to think about how quickly everything is

advancing with AI and, you know, like where we're going to be in 10 years time, like, it's going to be incredible. Well, I'm thrilled to have you on the journey towards it. Let's talk a little bit about this upcoming golf tournament called the Masters. Here's a list of people you probably here often. Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicholas, and Tiger Woods. What's that group got in common? They have all won what is called the Career Grand Slam. They have won all four majors. Now, you are right on the cusp. You just got to win the Masters. Yep. And... Mine's easy. Yeah. And here's the good news. This was an interesting stat I got pulled. Most top tens at the Masters in the last 10 years. We've got a group that's got three,

that's like Kepka, Sheffler, there's six others, group that's got four, Rose, Reed, Shoffley, group that's got five, Cam Smith, Dustin Johnson, John Rob, Jordan Speath, and only one person's got six top tens in the last 10 years, Roy McElroy. Yep. So look, it's a tournament that you play well.

Yeah, I do, yeah. Like, I've loved Augusta since the first time I laid eyes on it. Back in 2009, so whatever, 16 years ago when I played my first one. Yeah, look, the course sets up well for me. I love the place. I've had chances there, you know, and it goes back to what we said previously is, you know, every time that I've been there and I've had a chance, I've learned something different.

So I had a chance in 2011, didn't quite happen, played in the final group in 2018, played in the final group in the third round in 2016, finished second in 2022. You know, so I've had, I've had chances. I just haven't put it all together. You know, I've played, I think the thing with Augusta for me is I've played like a really good 63 holes a lot of times. And it's just that, just putting together that extra nine holes of good stuff. And whether that be it the final round or whether that's like a bad nine holes on the second day or whatever it is. It's just, it's trying to put all the pieces of the puzzle together in that one week.

but I feel like I'm getting closer to doing it so and it's like it's an amazing opportunity to join that list that you mentioned there with Tiger and Jack and Gary and Gene Sires and Ben Hogan I mean just like yeah these mythical figures in the game of golf you know and if I were able to join them that would be absolutely incredible and you know I feel like this year I've got just as good as a of a chance as I've had any of the other years so I'm I'm excited for it Do you feel like there's an element with the majors where it's almost like all the pro-golfers put almost more pressure on themselves because there's like these four tournaments and the media talks a lot about the importance of one of those four tournaments? And then even to some degree, now the fans feel that way because of the fracturing with the PGA tour and live.

So it's like the first time we see you all together. Yeah. No, it is. It keeps ratcheting up. Like everything that's happened in golf in these last like three or four years, it's benefited the majors and sort of that narrative around. the majors a lot because yeah it is the only place where you're going to see all the best players play together so the only place that you're going to see me play with bryson or brooks or john ram or cam smith or these guys is these four weeks a year but yeah look there is that narrative

like the major championships for golf are like our playoffs that's where we get a bump in interest and in ratings and and all that stuff like you know these are our playoff games so to speak you know if you're comparing it to baseball or basketball or our football So yeah, there is more attention on them and there is more scrutiny, but we get four a year. You know, that's still pretty good. I mean, you think about some of these Olympic athletes that have to wait four years for their one chance. It's crazy. You know, like that to me, you know, we get four opportunities a year.

So that's the really nice thing about golf. I talked to Justin Thomas yesterday, and he was saying with the Masters, he feels like less is more. Like you get there and like you want to get there a couple days early almost or like you want to do more practice rounds. are more hitting and obviously like unbelievable facility. Is there a truth to that? There is, yeah. There is certain, you know, I think people prepare differently for Augusta than they prepare for any other week of the year.

And it's like, well, for the 51 other weeks of the year, you do it this way. Why for this week are you doing it another way? Right. So, and I've fallen into that trap a few times as well where, you know, yeah, if you go up and you just prepare, like you prepare any other week, sometimes. Sometimes I feel guys give the place a little too much respect. You know, it's like, well, I have to prepare for all different scenarios, and I got to hit five chips from over here, and I got to hit 10 puts from this position on this screen.

It's like, we're only going to play this place four times. And like, the chance that we're going to hit it in all these places is very, very slim. So, and we're all like, we're the best players in the world. We're going to figure it out. So you've got to prepare and you got to do the right stuff, but you also, it's a very draining week because of everything that you said, the attention. the, you know, you've got the media, it's a pretty hilly golf course anyway, you've got the par three tournament on Wednesday, you've got, you know, it's just a lot of stuff. So if you can

do just enough and make sure that you can serve a lot of your energy so that you put all of that into the four days, you know, that's the biggest thing. Do you have a favorite stretch of holes there? Or do you try not to even have favorites, so to speak? Yeah, I think once you get past, once you get past 12 I feel like you have a chance like it's like 13's birdieable you had a good driving 14 14's birdieable 15's another par 5 16's got the like the par 3 and you can hit a clear so like that's a like it's a really exciting stretch of holes and you can you can make some birdies there but you can also you know there's you can get into trouble as well you've got the you know you've got the creek on 13 you've got the pond at the the front of 15 you know

it's still there's always sort of danger lurking but I think from an excitement standpoint like if you if you're having like an average day but you're like hanging on and you get through the 12th like you still feel you can shoot a good score because you've got those holes coming which is cool too yeah there's also something really fascinating about the wind there yeah which is hard to appreciate until you've played there but like the especially around 12 13 you can see trees going in different directions you can see flags blowing in different directions yeah i mean so if i played a practice round uh in 2009, so my first master's with Tom Watson.

And Tom, you know, one of the greatest players to ever live. And what he told me was, wherever the wind is supposed to be on the 12th T, as soon as you feel it there, hit it. Like that was sort of his, like you want to feel the wind where it's supposed to be. And once it's there, you know, then you go. But yeah, I've been on the 12th T before and the flag on the 11th grain's blowing into the wind. And then the flag on the 12th green is blowing straight downwind and you're just like, what am I supposed to do?

And you've got water short and you've got these bunkers long that are a terrible miss and it's a very, very shallow green. I mean, it's one of the coolest and best par threes in the world, but it can get really tricky. It's wild too how many tournaments come down to that hole in that shot. Yeah, that's what like everyone says, the master doesn't start until the back line on Sunday because there's so many things that can happen.

when Tiger won there in 2019 you know of the last three or four groups it was like he was the only one to hit it onto that green and everyone either you know missed it or hit it in the water or you know that's five of six players in the last two groups one in the water yeah it's like phenow and Molinari and Kepka yeah yeah it was Justin Rose yeah I think so yeah and Tiger was the one the play smart

the left so like it's yeah you know it again like when it's like that I think that's when I, you know, there's so much great stuff that comes with experience in golf. Like tigers played that hole hundreds of times and he knows well. Today with this pin position, with this wind, if I hit it into the middle of the green and I two putt from 40 feet, like I'm, I'm not going to lose anything to the field. And he was disciplined enough. And he was disciplined enough to do it. And I think that's the, that was a really impressive thing. I guess I have to ask you briefly about Liv.

Sure. Because you haven't really answered many questions on this topic. Does it matter to you that the sort of whole thing comes back together, or at this point, do you just think about your own golf game? So to me, personally, selfishly, I don't care. I'm focused on my own golf, and I'm going to play the tournaments that I want to play, and I'm going to try to beat the golfers that I play with on that given week. I think for the overall good of the game, like taking myself out of it,

sure it would be better if we were all back together a little more often and we were talking about like obviously the majors get that bump because we are but i think golf needs that bump more than four times a year and i think that's where for the good of the game absolutely it needs to it needs to come back together a little more often than it does um but from a personal standpoint i'm like i'm happy with where my game is i'm happy where everything is i'm whether it gets sorted out or not But I'm good regardless. Well, I'm happy to see the place that you're in with it, you know, because I felt like, I don't know what it was 18 months ago.

Like, you were so in the epicenter of it. And I think you had to carry a lot of weight for it. Yeah, I did. And it seemed distracting. It was distracting. It probably took time away from focusing on my day job, which is trying to be the best golfer that I can be. But it also took time away from other things I want to do outside of golf.

Like, instead of being on these board calls, like, I want to. go and play with my daughter. I want to see her grow up. I want to do all these other things. I want to take vacations, whatever it is. So I don't regret it because I still think like it was the right thing to do, but it got to the point where I realized that no matter how much time or effort I put into it, I alone cannot influence what way this is going to go. Like there's so many other more people involved than me. And that's where I just thought, you know, it's better to take a step back, focus on myself, and, you know, let these other guys try to figure it out. In a world where they stayed separate for a while, could you ever imagine, like,

a Rider Cup style match against them? I could. Like, PJ Tour vs. Liv. Yeah, I could, but then at the same time, do you want to give them that platform? Like, if I'm thinking, if I'm from the PGA tour side, that's got all of this, so many things in their favor. Yeah. So that's where it's like I don't know if you would want to do that and we've got the

Rider Cup like all of the best players in the most of the best players in the world that are European and American you know we have the Rider Cup anyway we also have the President's Cup like if it was a made-for-TV thing like a one-off occasion exhibition I think it would be cool it would generate some some excitement but I don't know if it would be something that would be like a recurring thing yeah rider Cup Beth Pidge Black I mean you're You're arguably the most popular golfer, one of the most popular golfers in the world, you're going to be really unpopular.

I'm going to be very much... Like, that might be the most booed... Enemy number one. Yeah. Have you thought about that? Yeah, I've talked a lot with Luke Donald about it. And I think it's a week where you're just going, I mean, going back to like the breathing, going back to getting yourself in any sort of parasympathetic state if you can just to not be reactive.

to hearing things or because it's you know it's not like it's a football game and the crowd you know they're right there you know they're right there on the rope line so you know you really do feel like you're you're in the middle of it so yeah it's going to be a week for me to to be super disciplined and to focus on all of those things that we've talked about in this podcast to just make sure like put myself in a in a really good state of mind because like again I'm not just playing for myself out there and playing for my teammates and if if I start to get reactive to whatever I hear, that's not good for them. So I want to try to be as good of a leader as I can

and try to set the tone and set the example. So, yeah, it's something that I've thought about a lot. And, you know, there's a few little strategies we're talking about to try to make sure that we're in the best place possible to overcome that. Well, it'll be fun to watch. Yeah, well, it'll be fun to play, and I can't wait for it.

Roars, thanks for doing this. Very grateful to have you as a partner to Whoop and everything that you do for the game. I'm glad to be a part of it. I, yeah, I love WIPP and it's honestly changed my life. So thank you. Thanks, brother. We appreciate you.

If you enjoyed this episode of the WOOP podcast, please leave a rating or review. Check us out on social at WOOP at Will Ahmed. If you have a question to us and answer it on the podcast, email us, podcast at WOOP.com. Call us 508-443-4952. If you think about joining WOOP, you can visit Woop.com. Sign up for a free 30-day trial membership. New members to use the code Will, W-I-L-L, to get a $60 credit on Woop accessories when you enter the code at checkout.

That's a wrap, folks. Thank you all for listening. We'll catch you next week on the WOOP podcast. As always, stay healthy and stay in the green.