WHOOP Podcast - Rory McIlroy, world's top-ranked golfer, shares how WHOOP has improved his career

Episode Date: April 8, 2020

In what would have been Masters week, we are excited to share our sit down with the world’s top golfer, Rory McIlroy. He joins Will Ahmed for a wide-ranging conversation about his career, what drives him, and how he believes WHOOP has improved his performance both on and off the course. Rory and Will discuss how it was Rory's lifelong dream to become a professional golfer (4:43), how he idolized Tiger Woods growing up (6:53), how his parents supported him unconditionally (8:55), golfing from sunrise to sunset (12:45), why his 2011 collapse at The Masters made him a better golfer (15:38), winning his first major just two months later (24:00), searching for an edge and discovering WHOOP (30:32), how WHOOP has altered his training methods (34:06), why a green recovery often means success on the course (37:20), his win at the 2019 FedEx Cup (38:13), how he views alcohol consumption differently because of WHOOP (45:17), how he mentally prepares for tournaments (53:08), why he admires Justin Thomas (1:00:54), why he's inspired by Tom Brady (1:02:17), and how WHOOP is improving his career and helping him lead a healthier life (1:04:34).Support 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

Hello, folks. Welcome to the Whoop podcast. I'm your host, Will Ahmed, the founder and CEO of Whoop, where we are on a mission to unlock human performance. We've got an amazing guest this week, Rory McElroy, world number one in professional golf, in honor of what would have been Master's Week, ruined, of course, by the coronavirus. No worries, we still have Rory here. And this is a really, really great episode. For those of you wondering, what is whoop? We build wearable technology to really optimize human performance. So small sensor measures everything about your body, things like sleep and recovery, stress,

and ultimately sends all of that information to your phone and phone to the cloud. You can catch some of our earlier, more recent podcasts where we were focusing on COVID-19 and a lot of research that we've done there, in particular, respiratory rate, which is a fascinating statistic. I would encourage everyone who hasn't listened to some of our earlier podcasts around COVID-19 to check out how respiratory rate may be a precursor to getting symptoms and indicating that you have COVID-19. Now, Rory and I recorded this in March down in Florida. You know, to give you a sense for what a class act, Rory McElroy is, we were recording this at a golf course and Rory didn't have his driver's license. He was driving there to meet me.

And the security guard wouldn't let Rory McElroy into the golf course because he didn't have his driver's license. He only had a passport. And I in the moment thought that was the most ridiculous and hilarious thing that literally a golf course would somehow block the best golfer in the world from entering its premises because he had the wrong form of identification. And to Rory's credit, he was totally down to earth about it, did not make a fuss, listen to the security guard, like eventually turned around. It was a whole production just getting him into doing this recording. But Rory was a total class act about it, which I think says a lot about him. I know I've certainly met people who would not have been a class act about that.

Now, in terms of the actual podcast, you know, we talked really about Rory's career at large, you know, how he knew from an early age that he was going to be a performance. professional golfer. It's very clear in listening to him that it was his dream from day one and he just set out to do it and he worked insanely hard. That was another thing that came through. I think a lot of people perceive Rory McElroy is this guy who's just so talented that the game just comes so easily to. And I found that he was deeply curious and deeply hardworking. I think when other people think he's just resting, he is working. And it may not be on golf. It's on all different aspects of his life. That was a really interesting theme that we touched upon.

It's just all the different ways that Rory is trying to optimize himself. And of course, it's super cool for me that Woop is one of those ways. I actually discovered he was wearing it because I was watching him on television. And Lone Bold, he had won the RBC open. So there on 18, I see a whoop strap on Rory McClure's wrist. And we'd gotten to know each other from that point forwards. We talked a little bit about just the mental aspect of golf. We go over his 2011 collapse at the Masters.

He had some really interesting insights into the ways that he grew from that experience. You know, talk about learning from failure. He clearly became a better golfer because of the 2011 collapse at the Masters. And it's really just a reminder to me that like no matter how far you make it, you could be literally the best in the world. There's still ways to get better. And I think that's the attitude that Rory is approaching his life with. He's certainly someone I have enormous respect for and proud to have on Woop.

So without further ado, here is Rory McElroy. Rory, welcome to the Hoop Podcast. Thank you. It's good to be on. I'm a big fan of Woop on the podcast, and it's an honor for me. Oh, well, thanks, man. Your career has been fascinating for me because we're both 30 years old. and I've watched the success that you've had

from an enormously young age and so it's been interesting for me to think at like age 17 or 18 wow what must it be like to be competing at this incredibly high level so congratulations on your career and just where you are today thank you appreciate that

now was it always obvious to you that you were going to be a professional golfer yeah I think it was it was definitely obvious to me I think it was pretty obvious to a lot of the people around me as well I grew up in a golf family. Even in like a golfing community, it seemed like everything revolved around the golf

club. It was a very social place, but all of my friends that I still have, I met at the golf club, I did the same, you know, so I, it's always been in my life, it's always been in my blood. And it was the one sport out of everything that I played as a kid that I really excelled at. And yeah, from, you know, from the age of like six or seven years old, I would tell everyone I was going to be the best golfer in the world. I love that. And to be able to live that dream and get to this point is pretty cool. I don't, you know, sometimes it's hard to think back on it because you don't want it to seem like, you know, this is my life and this is what I do.

I don't want to, I don't want to get all nostalgic about it and because I've still got so much to do and so much I still want to achieve. But sometimes it's nice to sit back and be like, you know, this has been a pretty cool journey. Yeah, just gratitude. Yeah. It's a big theme, actually, for people that I've spoken to on this podcast, even, is the importance of gratitude. Has that played a role in the way you think about your career? Definitely. And I think one of the things about being a golfer is people only see, it's an very individual sport and people only see what you do.

But I've definitely got a lot of gratitude for the people around me that helped me get to this point. So my coach, Michael Bannon, I've had the same coach for 24 years. Which is 90% of your life. Yeah, exactly. So, I mean, the fact that I've had the same coach, and he's brought me from, you know, a little kid that, you know, just taught me how to grip a golf club to be in where I am now. My mom and dad, my friends, my, you know, extended family, everyone around me, that's, I have gratitude towards them because they're the ones that do a lot of the work that the people don't see and maybe don't get the credit for. You know, I'm the one that stands up on the 18th Green on a Sunday and holds a trophy, but there's so many other people that are a part of it that, you know, That's what I'm really grateful for. Well, one of the, and we spoke about this quickly on the phone, like one of the best commercials I've ever seen in my life was the Nike commercial with you aspiring to be Tiger Woods.

And again, we're the same age, so I can picture you watching those Tiger Woods highlights at every phase of your career. And then the, you know, the iconic commercial ends with you, you know, walking down the first tee next to Tiger. Yeah. That's pretty... I'm getting goosebumps just sort of...

No, it's a commercial, literally. that gave me goosebumps. And it must be so fascinating for you to have followed that journey. It is. You know, Tiger was a huge hero of mine growing up. And, you know, sometimes they say that you should never meet your heroes because you'll be disappointed. But I've gotten to know Tiger a lot over the last few years. And I haven't been disappointed. He's always been so good to me. And he's been really good with my parents. Oh, that's cool. Which is really cool. I think he valued his relationship with his parents so much and his dad and I think he sees a sort of similar relationship that I have with mine and every time I see him he asked about them he you know so

the fact that yeah I was I idolized him and I had posters of him in my bedroom wall and the fact that now I get to compete against him and I you know that's a that's a cool thing as well I mean it's again I maybe don't think about it as much as I should because I don't want to get all nostalgic about it but it's a you know if it just goes to show if you have a dream and you work hard enough at it and you do the right things you know anything is anything's possible yeah yeah and shout it to nike for an epic commercial because they captured that incredibly well yeah now you mentioned your father um we both are also only children okay and so i i know what that's also like in terms of building a relationship with your parents and how much also your parents can invest in

right? Because there's just so much of a focus. And I imagine that was true for you in building your golf career. The jobs that my parents worked, my dad would work sort of in the evening times in bars and restaurants and stuff. And my mom worked night shifts in a factory. So it was always this, I always either spent time with my mom or my dad. It was never both of them together because they were always always working. So I remember as a kid saying to them, like, why can't we be like a normal family. Yeah. And obviously at that point I didn't understand and they were they were working so hard like my mom didn't have to work night shifts but she was working to make more money to help support me and try. And your dream. And my dream. And it was always my dream. It was never

theirs. That's important. It's very important. They encouraged me and they supported me but they never pushed me in a certain direction which now as 30 years old and I appreciate that because I know a little a little bit more about the world and I've seen what happens to these child prodigies that are great at something and their parents push them a certain direction, you know, they burn out by the time they're in their mid-20s. So I really appreciated what my mom and dad did for me. Would you say that's like, how did you avoid that, right? I mean, there's so many examples of child prodigies and you were a child prodigy because you were winning all these tournaments. You're the youngest person to, you know, make a number of accomplishments on both the European tour and the Piotor. How did you

prevent that in your life? Again, it was my dream. It was no one else's. It's an inner belief. It is. It's something that has to be inside of you. It's even something you can't be told what to do. You can't be. I'm stubborn by nature. So if someone tells me I can't do something, I want to do it. Yeah. I think as well, when I was sort of climbing that ladder and trying to become the player that I wanted to be. I had people around me that didn't let me get too big for my station, right? They didn't let my ego inflate. They didn't, you know, I still remembered where I came from. I remembered that, you know, my mom and dad will always be my mom and dad. I always had a pretty good sense of perspective on things that even if I become the best golfer in the world, it doesn't

change who I am as a person or how I should treat people or, you know, so I've always, you know, my parents always instilled that as well. It doesn't matter how good or how big or how whatever are you still have to be a nice person and be polite and have manners and all that stuff so that was big as well well well you clearly carry that i mean i think you're an unbelievable ambassador for uh for the game in that regard and it's an interesting case study on having the same core group of people around you and how stabilizing that can be yeah because you hear a lot of stories i feel like of professional athletes or or child prodigies in different regards and they have this sort of evolving group of people around them and you know i think a lack of that support

probably can be quite difficult as you get more and more successful. A hundred percent and I think as well not all those people that start to come into your life are aligned in the same beliefs and they don't have your best interests at heart all of the time. They're maybe looking out for themselves or they're trying to advance what they're doing. So to be able to keep my core group of friends that see me as who I was when I was a kid rather than who I am now is very important. I want to talk a little bit about sort of two different phases of your career.

So early stage career and then how you think about your career today. When you were 18 or 19, what was the sort of typical daylike if you think about, hey, I want to be the best golfer I can be? Yeah, it was definitely more practice-driven. Golf-centric. Golf-centric.

You know, I wasn't really watching what I ever. I wasn't, it was golf. It was golf, golf, golf, golf. And how much golf would you play in a day? I mean, when I was a kid like that, you know, 15, 16, 17, I mean, there was days where I play 54 holes. Yeah. I go around three times. I'd hit balls. And I, and that's one of the great things about Northern Ireland where I grew up. In the summertime, when I was off school, it would get light at 6.30 or 6 or even earlier, but it wouldn't get dark until 10 p.m. Right. So I had this huge window of time where I could play golf and just hang out at the golf club. And that was really important as well.

You know, and that's where I, I hone my skills, but I also met my friends. I did all, you know, as I said, you know, it was a real hub of the town where I grew up. So I played a lot. I practiced a lot. Golf was what I did. It was in my life. I, you know, when I went to bed at night, I was thinking about the next day going to the course. I, you know, I had probably two of my three meals a day at the golf club.

all that sort of stuff. And if you think about how that's shifted a little bit, like when did you first introduce fitness? I mean, you're a strong guy. It's very clear you're a strong guy. So I had back problems when I was 18 or 19. I had a herniated disc, L4, L5. And I was told when I was 19 that, you know,

if I didn't sort this out, if I didn't get stronger, if I wasn't more diligent on the health side of things, that my career could only last a handful of years. So that's when it really hit home to me. I'm like, oh, I need to. It's scary. It is scary. Especially as a golfer, you think your career is going to last forever. And it can if you stay out. Yeah, you figure, hey, I'm going to be able to play this until I'm eight years old. Yeah, exactly. And I think that's one of the beauties about is that you can. But it really hit home with me. So after that and after basically getting into an MRI scanner every four weeks to see how my back was.

Wow, that's a lot. Yeah. It was so that's when I was like, okay, I need to get stronger. I need to put a structure in place so that this isn't going to be an ongoing problem. So that was when I was sort of like 20 years old. So 2010 was when I started and then 2011 is when I started, you know, my first major then. And so I always correlated fitness and getting in shape and making my health a priority. I correlated that with playing my best golf.

And that's why I've continued to do that since. Yeah, I mean, it's pretty amazing. Right after you introduce fitness, we're talking a matter of months, really, where your career starts to go into a different inflection. I think people underestimate, so the casual observer of golf underestimates just how insanely mental the game is. And in 2011, right, you're leading the Masters, and you've reflected on this as being a high for you, like in, you know, how it's shaped your career. Yeah.

Talk about the mindset you had that day. You know, we're talking about the Sunday of the Masters. I think leading by four shots. Yeah. What was your mindset going into that round if you reflect on it and where did it potentially go wrong? Yeah. So I think back to 2011 in the Masters. and I, on the last day, I was trying to be someone else that I wasn't.

You know, I was trying to be, I was almost trying to be like Tiger Woods. I was trying to be hyper-focused, not look at anyone, not talk to anyone, like, real business-like, real, and that's never been me. I, you know, I approach it a different way. I play my best when I'm a little more happy, go lucky, and relaxed and almost, like, casual about it. You do seem relaxed and casual about it, like watching as a fan. And that's how I play my best golf. Yeah. But I thought, to win the Masters, I need to be like this.

You need to be a different person today. I need to be like Tiger. That was my mindset, and that's where it went wrong for me. And so you almost embodied a slightly different version of yourself just for that round. Yeah, yeah. And I think as well, at that point, I wasn't as into the mental side of things as I am now. So, you know, I would, you know, I'd watch the coverage in the morning and, you know, I'd maybe hear what they're saying about me or about the other players or...

So you'd be paying attention to the commentary of the tournament you were playing in. Yeah. Versus, say, ignoring it or focusing on yourself. Exactly. And today, would you say you focus more on yourself? Way more, yeah. One of my pet peeves at golf tournaments is the golf channel's always on. Yeah.

They're like, guys, why is everyone watching this? It's doing none of us any good. Oh, literally, it's on the television set. on the television, like in the locker rooms are in the, you know, so it's hard to avoid it. But, you know, it would be like guys getting ready for a, you know, the World Series game and they're watching the, you know, the pre-game analysis. I was like, geez, I don't think we really need to see that. Yeah, I would imagine that's quite distracting. Yeah. So that's why, you know, I made a promise to myself a few years ago. I'm never going to watch, even, you know, you can go

and in the mornings and watch like PGA tour live and see what the morning grips are doing and maybe see how the golf course is playing or the PIM positions or any of that stuff. But I don't even, because if I see a guy hit it in a spot, I'm like, oh, that doesn't look very nice over there. You know, it just changes your mindset. Exactly. So I, you know, the last few years I made a promise I don't, when I'm at tournaments, I don't watch any golf.

I don't, I don't listen to what they say. I don't read any news articles. I just, I shut myself off from all of that. And where does your phone fit into that mix? I'm a big believer in less is more with phones. Totally. I read digital minimalism by Cal Newport last year, and that really opened my eyes to what happens to your brain when you're on your phone for such a long amount of time.

Or he talks about prefrontal cortex and how that inhibits your cognition and decision-making. And so I try to, you know, I'm not going to restrict myself from my phone, but, um, I have an app called Freedom, which basically, it's a URL blocker, which blocks like Instagram, blocks Twitter, blocks anything. You can block certain words, like, in a Google search. So, like, so nothing about myself would come up. So I just really important, yeah. So you kind of create this lane that you're playing in.

Yeah, yeah. So that's, and I like to switch off from, when I'm at a golf tournament, when I get back, you know, like last week we were in Mexico. and I got into Narcos, Mexico. I was like, oh, I'm in Mexico. I'm like, so I couldn't wait to get back to the room and put on, like, a couple episodes of... So you'll watch a television show or something

to sort of decompress. Yeah, watch a television show. When my wife travels with me, we do jigsaw puzzles. Oh, that's cool. We puzzle. She loves doing them. She's a huge advocate of not being on your phone. Like, anytime I ring her, like, she doesn't have her phone with her.

That's healthy, because I imagine it would actually be distracting for you, too, if she's on her phone all the time. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And I think I have a healthy relationship with my phone. I don't think that was always the case. I would have been on Twitter and Instagram a lot and I would have. But I, you know, it's so habit forming. And it's, you know, I think for me, if I'm going to use my phone, I want to use it intentionally and not because of a habit. And that's the big thing. Yeah, I think in general, people's brains are overstimulated and probably people's bodies are understimulated. Yes, exactly. And you have an advantage as a professional golfer to be on the right side of that. equation. Yeah. And it's, it sounds like you've approached that in a really smart way. Definitely. I I read a thing, just one more point on this. I read a thing, you know, the biggest thing that

happened in the, in the 20th century was people realized what overconsumption of food and drink and, you know, did to their bodies. Yeah. So people exercised and they went on diets. And I think in the 21st century, people are going to realize that the overconsumption of information is going to make you do this like mental diet, mental detox where you have to get away from it and you have to put yourself on a sort of that, an information diet, basically, because that's, you know, with mental health and with all these other things that are, that are so prevalent in this day and age, I think that's where, you know, that's probably going to be one of the biggest discoveries of the next few years. I completely agree. I actually think we're going to

get to a place where, like, cell phone service is either on or off and you can actually go into areas that are like intentionally cut off yeah and so it's more of a focus on the people that you're with or the experience that you're having yeah I used to love getting on airplanes that didn't have Wi-Fi yeah right oh this is gonna be a nice couple hours of just me time but obviously that's even that's that's not very you know there's Wi-Fi everywhere you go nowadays now if we go back for a second so 2011 you have this master's experience I imagine right afterwards you're in a bad place is that fair yeah very fair you know it was it was tough my mom and dad weren't there and i didn't you know i i the night

of was was rough i had a few friends there and it was it was tough but we had dinner with david ferdy oh cool which was like he he's a character he cheered me up and my mood was boosted so and i didn't talk my mom and dad were back in the UK so i didn't talk to them until the next morning okay and when i i talked to my dad it was fine he was like look you'll have more chances, it's fine. But when I spoke to my mom, I just broke down. Yeah. I just was like, you know, this is, it was rough. And I think I needed that. I needed that like a reset, talk with her and to cry and let it all out. And after that, I was motivated. I was like, you know, this is what happened yesterday. It's not going to define me. And that isn't who I am as a golfer or a person.

And I'm going to take this experience and I'm going to use it to make me better. And that's what I tried to do. And when you say that, like, are you just saying that sort of wants to yourself, or are you actually creating a process in which you're reiterating that to yourself, some form of visualization or meditation, anything like that? Yeah, I think you're creating a, you're creating a process, but you're also, you know, sometimes the fear of failure is a good thing. Yeah. So, you know, for me, it was I never want that to happen again. And I'm never going to, you know, I've always pride of myself in learning from my mistakes and I made a lot of mistakes that day and that week and maybe the next time you're not going to do everything perfect but you're going to be a little

bit better and a little bit better so for me it was just this gradual build up of okay you know the next tournament I play what can I do better than I did then and it was just putting the building blocks in place to get to a point where all I wanted was another opportunity I was like I want to get into the final group of a major again and I want to show myself and people that what they saw the Masters wasn't a true reflection of who I am. So then the Sunday of the US Open in 2011, you're playing a phenomenal tournament. How is your mindset different? Were you all of a sudden just focused on being yourself versus the Tiger version of Rory? Focused on being myself. I sort of, I wrapped myself in my own little bubble. I remember I watched a

movie in the morning. I was trying to do anything I could to not think about what was going to happen that day. Yeah. So I remember I watched the one of my favorite movies is the Dark Night Batman. Oh cool. And I watched the movie. I watched that in the morning and that sort of put me in a good. So you woke up and watched the dark night? Well, I woke up. I had some breakfast. Yeah. And, you know, these late tea times, there's a lot of time to kill. If you wake up at seven in the morning and you're not teeing off to three, it's like, okay. Yeah, what can I do? So. And the Dark Night's actually a pretty long movie as well. Yeah, it's like three hours.

Yeah, exactly. So I watched that in the morning and sort of put me in a good place and, you know, took my mind away from thinking, okay, how's the first going to play and how's the second going to play and what happens if he does this or I just, I got away from all that and I just put my mind in a different space. And when you play in, I mean, any tournament, are you visualizing like where you want to put each shot before a round, or is that mostly happening in the round itself? I think for me, that happens on the range. So I'll try to replicate a certain shot that

I'm trying to hit on the course. That makes sense. So, you know, if I, like, say, congressional that week, it was a three-wood off the first. So, you know, I'd try to recreate that first T-shot in my mind, okay, I'm going to try to hit a little draw. You know, this pin out on the range is actually the right bunker, and you're trying to take it off that. So you're always, on the range, is where that would, a little closer to, a little closer to when you're teeing off. So you'll recreate the hole and the shot right there on the range? Yeah. And will you go so far as to like picture them announcing your name or anything like,

like how deep of a visualization will you actually do? No, and I'll get to a point, I'll talk about this later last year at the British Open at Port Rush where I probably should have done that, but no, it's more just the golf. It's not really anything around. But I remember one of the things from that week at the U.S. Open, I watched my body language back from the Masters, especially on the Sunday when things started to go wrong. You rewatched the round.

Yeah. Okay, cool. I became very closed off and looking at the ground and shoulders sort of rolled in and not creating this positive, you know, posture. So one of my big keys for that last, or for the whole week in the U.S. Open, but especially the last drawing, no matter what happened, was to keep my eye line above the heads of the spectators. Oh, I love that.

So that was always something. That was one of my, that was my key thought for the week. Well, you have great posture, which kind of explains that mindset. Yeah, work on it. Because you're probably, you know, you're like that all the time. But yeah, it's always, it's something. But I think as well, just sitting up and looking, I mean, it makes you feel a little more comfortable.

Yeah, you're kind of like in the, you're projecting a version of yourself that you want. exactly and if we think about your preparation between the round finishing and the next round what are some of the things that you're doing between between rounds because okay say your round ends at 6 p.m. or something like go from there yeah so I try to eat straight away because if I one of the things I've learned from wearing whoop is that if I eat too close to bed time I don't sleep well yeah so I try to eat straight away so if I if I finish around that does end pretty, pretty late. I'll probably just grab dinner at the course or dinner on the way home at like a whole foods or something and eat and make sure that I

eat early enough that I give myself at least like a two-hour window to when I go to bed. That makes sense. Blue light blocking glasses. I started wearing those. It's been so good for me just to sort of start that wind-down process. And you get an enormous amount of slow wave and REM sleep. We'll talk about your day in a second. But I bet that that's helped a lot. because I've noticed it in my data as well. Yeah, so that's been a big thing, especially like whenever I am at home, the TV's on and whatever,

and if you are looking at your phone, and they're so good nowadays, these glasses that they just look like normal glasses. Totally. So I do that. If I really, I don't like doing it, but if I really want to get a good night's sleep, I take a cold shower.

Yeah. I'm not a big fan of it. It's tough for me to do, but it really helps. I completely. really helps. You know, some guys will get into the ice bath and feel like that's good for them and stuff. But for me, if I'm taking a shower for the last 30 seconds of it, I'll just say, okay, just bear this for 30 seconds. It's going to help. And so that's sort of, that's really

my routine. I, you know, everything now is geared towards, you know, how can I get the best rest possible going into the next day? And that's, you know, for the last, I don't know, was it, eight months that I've worn whoop. I've sort of started to learn my habits. I've learned what works for me. I've tried things that haven't worked for me that worked for other people. Sure. And, you know, that's the, but I think having that mindset that you're always thinking about the next day and wanting a green recovery and wanting to sleep well. And, you know, that's, that's important. So you mentioned moab. How did you first find out about whoop? So I found out about probably two or three years before I started wearing it.

There's a couple of trainers on the PGA tour that were wearing it and were talking to me about it. And I thought it was really interesting. But for me as a golfer, I was like, well, I'm not an endurance athlete. I need a heart rate monitor 247, all that sort of stuff. So I sort of didn't do it. I wore an Apple Watch for a bit and that was fine and it sort of tracks a little bit but not much and I've used some other HRV devices and stuff that measures a central nervous system but it was once I started to learn a little bit more about sympathetic and parasympathetic

and yeah central nervous system HRV what all that means and I think you know I started wearing because I just wanted to know more about my body and myself and how I recover and, you know, I just wanted to optimize what I do. And I think in this day and age in golf, with the technology that's out there, everyone's become so, everyone's got closer together. You know, the difference between the number one ranked player in the world and the number 100 is actually pretty small. Yeah. So for me, I want to do everything I possibly can to get an advantage. And for me, WIP is one of things that can give me an advantage. Well, it's super cool for me being here with you and also talking about it and having you on the product. And I think I discovered that you were wearing

whoop because you won the Canadian Open. And I was like, oh, boom, there's a whoop strap. Yeah. I had a bunch of people that text me, hey, I think Rory's on whoop. Yeah. So that was, I actually wore it the, I got it and wore it the week before the memorial. And I didn't play very well at the memorial, but it was nothing to do with having a whip band on. And then I went to Canada the next week and then I won and that's when it sort of gained a lot of traction and people were asking what's on your wrist and said, oh, it's, it's whoop and, you know, it's a heart rate tracker, but a sleep tracker. And, you know, I sort of tried to explain it and go into HRV and what that means central nervous system and all this stuff. Yeah. Obviously, you can explain it much better than I can, but I was sort of telling everyone that I could that, you know, this thing really helps. and it's really helped me.

And I think from that, I knew a few golfers that were wearing at Scott Stallings was one of the first ones who's probably the fittest guy on the PGA tour. But then once I won with it, it got a little more traction

and then you saw a lot more golfers wearing it. And it's become, I think you can't watch a PGA or European Tour event nowadays without seeing a guy with a whip on, which is awesome. Yeah, it's really cool for me. I discover who's wearing it

just by watching television and I'll just see it on people's wrists. Now, the phenomenon you're describing with heart rate variability, just for people who aren't familiar with that. Heart rate variability is one of the things that we measure, and it's effectively looking at this relationship between sympathetic and parasympathetic activity, which is this lens into your autonomic nervous system. And for high-performing individuals like yourself, you know that having your heart rate

variability be higher is actually a sign that your body is repairing and recovering. And so a big theme for whoop and really how the company came to be was this idea that It wasn't just what you're doing when you're exercising or you're competing. It was understanding how the other 20 hours of the day affect your body. And in particular, understanding things like heart rate variability and understanding slow wave sleep and understanding REM sleep can play a huge role in how someone performs. And you've clearly, you know, taken to that whole phenomenon. Have you always had a deep curiosity in technology or in understanding your body? or is it more of recent?

It's more recent. I think once I... So I will say this. Back in 2014, the last year that I won a couple of majors, I was training really hard. I had a men's health shoot coming up and I was training hard and probably for the wrong reasons, trying to look good for a magazine. Exactly. So, but my whole thing, I, thinking back to that time, I slept terribly. Like I would get six hours a night and that would be.

like awesome for me. And looking back on it, I realized by wearing whip that I was overtraining. I was completely overtrained. I was sleeping terribly. And yes, okay, I look good and whatever, but it wasn't, you know, it wasn't doing, it wasn't doing anything for my performance. Yeah. So I was definitely a, you know, I only need a few hours sleep in night and sort of wore it as a badge of honor in a way that, you know, I can only, I can get by and I'm good the next day where now, if I don't get eight hours of sleep, I'm like, geez, I, you know, I should really go for a nap. So it's, it really, my, my view on sleep and rest and recovery has changed so much in the last few years. Well, I've got a couple of statistics here because you, you give us

permission to pull some data points for you, which are fascinating. So one thing that, that you may or not know is that you average an hour and 54 minutes of REM sleep a night and an hour and 48 minutes of slow wave sleep at night. Okay. So that's really high. Okay. Which is awesome. Yeah. So you're getting close to four hours of really restorative sleep a night. So for people listening to this who don't know what we're talking about, slow wave sleep is effectively the period where your body is producing about 95% of its human growth hormone. Yeah. So if you're a professional athlete and you're training or You're trying to build muscle. You're trying to get your body stronger.

You're not actually getting stronger in the gym. No. You're breaking your muscles down. Slow wave sleep is this fascinating period of time where your body's repairing those muscles. And so you get a ridiculously high amount of slow wave sleep. The other thing, which I imagine is super important for golf, because we talked about the mental side, is REM sleep. So REM sleep is when you're effectively dreaming. You know, that's when you're improving cognitive function.

So those periods of sleep are so much more important than the other cycles of sleep because there's periods where you're effectively in light sleep or awake. And so if you can maximize the amount of time that you're getting slow wave and REM sleep, it plays this enormously important role in your recovery. Now, if we look at a couple statistics, one of my favorite in this sort of sparked the conversation, is at the FedEx Cup, you had to play 31 holes on the final day. And you woke up with a 86% recovery. So recovery is zero to 100% the higher the better.

And it's effectively saying, you know, based on your heart rate variability and quality of sleep, this is how prepared we think you are to perform. You got over seven and a half hours of sleep. What was it like? Like, how do you, first of all, how do you even look at that information during a tournament? Yeah. So it's the first thing I check in the morning. So I get up and,

I go into my whip app and it says sleep detected, so process. So I'll hit the process buttons, the first thing I do, and I wait for that score to come up. And I've always said, and this is something, and this goes into the mental side, if I don't get a good recovery score, that's fine. I still have to go and perform and I still have to, so, but I always say, if I've looked at my data, which I have, and you guys have, any time that I have got a recovery in the green, I have performed well, there's been things. times where I've had recoveries in the red and I haven't and I have performed well also but I feel like I've I've performed well in spite of your body in spite of my body instead of because of my body yeah so that that's the difference because I never want to wake up and see a bad recovery score and think geez today is not going to be a good day because that's just not

realistic that can't happen so but if I can if I can optimize my my recovery and I can do the things we talked about cold shower blue light blocking glass eat a couple hours before bedtime, read. I find reading in bed helps, but specifically a book like with pages instead of on your phone. I think that's important. It is very important. All of that goes into me trying to get the best possible score the next day. But when I woke up that final round of the FedEx Cup knowing I had a long day ahead of me and I saw that I had 86% recovery, I was like, well, I know I'm ready. I know I'm ready to go and do this. That's energizing, right? Exactly.

And then you play 31 holes. On a day like that, are you changing anything about the way you're preparing, just knowing that you're going to be in competition for that much longer? I think as golfers were used to getting up early and, you know, that's sort of, it's always being that way. I think the big thing for me in that was what do I do with my time in between runs? You know, I had to play 13 holes in the morning and I played well. but what I do with these three and a half hours that I've got. So, you know, I went in and I made sure to, like, eat enough and keep myself fueled

because it's going to be a really long day. I didn't quite nap, but I relaxed, which was a big thing. And what does relaxed look like? I mean, lying in the locker room with your feet up, chatting to someone, or, you know, maybe closing your eyes. are, you know, doing something, but just more of a, you know, I could get back to taking your mind away from what's coming up. Yeah.

You know, because I, you know, another one of Kyle Newport's book's deep work is the fact that you can only really do four hours a day of real intense deep work. And so the more you can relax and take those little breaks so that you can put your all into what you, you know, what's very important that day, you know, that's a big thing. That's a huge phenomenon I've learned from high performing people. like yourself is to be on when you're on, but when you're off, don't be half on. Yeah. You know, and that's kind of the phenomenon you're describing.

Yeah, for sure. And so then you went on to win the FedEx Cup that day, which is pretty happy. I went on, yeah, win the FedEx Cup, which was, you know, last year was a great year, but that just sort of, there was a lot riding on that day as well because two weeks prior in Memphis, I played with Brooks Kepka in the final group, and he was the number one player in the world, and he, he dusted me. I played not very well, but he played really good. And it was an opportunity for me to not get him back,

but at least put in a better performance than I put in that day. And I did. So that was one of the most rewarding things, the fact that, again, I learned from some of my mistakes a couple weeks before, and I was able to write those. And I was better that day than I was two weeks earlier, which made a difference. Now, how much for you is golf competing against yourself

versus someone that you're standing next to on the first tea, like a Brooks Kepka or anyone else? It's mostly about yourself. I mean, golf is you and the golf course. The only opponent you have is the golf course and yourself sometimes because, you know, self-doubt creeps in or things, you know, things get into your head or there's certain tea shots and courses that you don't like. And, I mean, that's the overcoming that, you don't need to worry about anyone else. I think people get into this habit in golf where they start to try to create these rivalries and they start to think, well, it's him versus him and these are the two best players in the world. But it's really everyone for themselves.

And if you can focus on yourself 100% and get the best out of what you do, it doesn't matter what anyone else does. You know, my lens into that has been through watching whoop grow in golf because my sense is that professional golfers are much more collaborative than other sports. Yeah. And like if I think about some other sports, people will be kind of more to themselves. They don't want to reveal any of their secrets. Whereas I've just seen how whoop spread, it's pretty clear that you guys are talking to

each other about some of the things that you're using and trying and... Yeah, it's different. It's a different culture. It is a very different culture. Yeah. Even, you know, guys will share the CM coach in golf. Like, that would never happen in tennis or, you know, I'm the only real sport I can compare golf to is tennis because individual sports and the thing with golf is I can't and that's how I try to explain the difference is if I know that Tiger Woods isn't comfortable hitting a certain shot I can't go and place this golf ball right in that spot and say okay hit the shot where in tennis

a guy if Nadal plays Federer nadal just hits it high to Federer's backhand all day because he knows that's got that's going to break down eventually that is so So as a golfers, we can't do that. You know, sometimes a golf course doesn't suit your eye or it might fit someone else's game a little bit better, but at the end of the day, it's totally up to what you do. And, you know, no one else can influence that. Now, one interesting thing about WOOP is that you can see how different environments, travel, et cetera, affect your body.

You were just at altitude. Talk about how that affected your data and your process. It was crazy. So, yeah, I played in Mexico City last. week which is at 8,000 feet and it was again talking about golfers and being collaborative and a lot of people on the tour wearing whip everyone was like what's your recovery score I can't get I haven't been in the green this week I'm I'm in the red and in the yellow but yeah it's just your body's working harder to to try to

you know get some oxygen in there and and even the first couple days in the gym it was like oh this is even on the course you know walking between shots up hills you're you're really just your heart rate's a little more elevated yeah and I I think it was, I mean, I looked at my heart rate on Sunday, and there was a lot of spikes up above 120, where for me on a golf course isn't really unusual. Very unusual, but, you know, I was playing, you know, final rounds are usually a little more stressful anyway, but then with the altitude, with the hills, you know, there's a lot of, you know, there was maybe a good 10 or 15 times during that round where my heart rate got above

120, which is unusual for me. Now, will you focus that much on what your heart rate was at different moments during the round or the overall strain, or is that for you more of a general guidance? So strain for me is more, it's a general guidance, but I know if I, like, I, on Monday, got home, we had a few friends over to her house. I had a couple of glasses of wine. I woke up on Tuesday morning with a terrible recovery. Yeah.

And I was meant to work out that day. And I said, no, you know, my body, it's not worth it. It's not worth it. My body needs another day of rest. So I will, you know, when I wake up in the morning, I can see that. you know, keep your strain below a 12, or I'll, I usually adhere to that because, you know, even if you feel okay, your body's still recovering. It's not in the right place. But, you know, like today I woke up when I was in the green and, you know, rebounded pretty well from that low one.

So first thing I did was get in the gym and, you know, get a good workout in and feel much better. Well, one interesting thing, when you come back from altitude, you normally, your body will respond positively to that. So that may in part be how you bounce back quickly from alcohol. We were talking a little bit about alcohol before we started on the podcast. How have you seen alcohol affect your sleep and your whoop data? I mean, I love red wine. Like I'm a big, I collect red wine. We have a cellar at home. It's a hobby for me. Great. But before I wore whip, I would have drank a lot more than I do now. There would be times at tournaments where I'd a glass of red wine with dinner.

Yeah. And yes, that's okay, but doing it too often then leads to, you know, not great scores and not great sleep. But my alcohol consumption is way down from wearing wood. Yeah, the fascinating thing about alcohol is how dramatically it affects your sleep. Yeah. And in turn, it makes you get less slow wave sleep, less REM sleep, and it lowers your heart rate variability, which is that relationship we were talking about earlier.

Exactly. So it puts you more into a sympathetic space in your nervous system. And for me, my resting heart rate average is like 45. Which is low. Which is low. But I've looked at other people that wear a whip and my resting heart rate with alcohol is at least 10 beats faster, if not more. So I think it actually affects me more than other people. You can see some people, you know, it might be a few beats faster or whatever. But, you know, if my. I, The other night when I had those three glasses of wine, you know, my average is 45 and that night it was 59, so 14 beats higher. Wow. Which is just crazy. It just shows you. I mean, that's one of the biggest forms of behavior change. I think Woop has had on everyone, not just professional athletes, is just seeing how alcohol affects

your body. Yeah, it's unbelievable. And then, you know, I was very lucky that today I bounce back from that, but there has been times where it'll, you know, I listen to the podcast, you know, the. four-day hangover thing. And that, that is real. It's a real phenomenon. It takes you, you know, at least three or four days to get back to where you need to be to perform. So, you know, I definitely think twice now about, you know, having that glass of wine or, you know. It's a bummer, too. I mean, I like drinking as much as the next guy. Yeah, it's a,

but it just helps you focus, I think, to recognize how it affects your body. I think it's a little bit like the phone thing. It can become a habit. But if you can do it intentionally and, okay, I'm okay knowing that tomorrow I've got nothing going on and I can have a bad recovery score if I have these couple of glasses of wine and that's fine but it's again that's the one thing that whips taught me more than anything else is what are good habits for me to wake up the next day and be ready to do the best version of yourself exactly now do you experiment at all with things like melatonin or magnesium yeah what do you like to take uh so I I take a magnesium supplement every day.

I do too, by the way. Yeah, and I've actually, so I tried, so there's a few golfers now that are like sponsored by CBD companies. Oh, interesting. So I've taken a couple of times CBD oil with melatonin. Okay. And I've really liked it. Again, I don't want to do it all the time, but there's been some nights from like,

you know, I just, I really want to sleep and your mind might be, your mind might be racing. You're thinking about some stuff. And I've taken it, I've probably taken it like once or twice a week for the last month. And it's, it's helped me. And on those specific nights, do you notice the next day more REM sleep or slow wave or higher recovery? Anything in particular? Maybe you fall asleep faster. So I think my, my latency is probably being a little bit quicker. So sleep latency is the amount of time that it takes to fall asleep. It sounds like that's shorter when. Exactly. It just helps me relax. Sometimes I'll, I'll, you know, if that, instead of maybe taking a supplement, I'll put on the calm app and like listen to a sleep story or listen to something like that. And that helps me sort of wind on and drift off. But that's the only supplement that I've taken that, you know, and melatonin as well. But, you know, I take, I take magnesium. I think zinc's pretty good as well. But I don't take zinc. But I take all omega-3s and all the stuff.

the normal vitamins? Just normal vitamins. I think so. I think anything that can be like anti-inflammatory and is a good thing. But yes, but that the CBD, all with the melatonin I've taken a couple times and I feel like it's helped a little bit. If we go back to altitude for half a second, so I'm looking at your data here for the Mexico championship. And it's interesting, you were actually getting a lot of sleep, but to your point, your recovery scores weren't as high as they are at most tournaments. Yeah. So that probably shows that the altitude

was getting to your HRV a little bit. Yeah, exactly. And I was doing everything right to try to get good sleep. And yeah, I just, you know, maybe I wasn't there long enough to adjust. So when did you arrive? So I arrived Monday night.

So Monday night, yeah. It's, that's almost like a challenging period of time where sometimes, It's like the first night there or the second night there. You might be able to get through it. Okay. Just like the first night. Yeah.

We worked with the U.S. Olympic swim team, I remember, a few years ago. And they had this fascinating moment for the Olympic trials where they showed up like three days before the event. And it turned out on their whoop scores, they had high recoveries rate the next day. And then they dipped. Okay. And then they actually came back. So they timed it as poorly as you could where like all of the, the recoveries were lowest on the day of the trials. And then when they traveled the next time,

they actually got there like a week in advance. And so it was high and then dip and then it came back. Yeah. And I don't know exactly how, you know, it's probably a little different for everyone at altitude. But, you know, the good news is you weren't in the red during the tournament. No, yeah. I try my best. And it's probably, it's probably empowering for you to know that you're so focused on this sort of thing. Whereas someone else who's maybe not measuring these things or managing them might be at a disadvantage, you know, than you at the tournament. Yeah, exactly. And that's going back to, you know, having every little advantage that you can because I feel the game of golf right now is so bunched. Yeah. That if you can differentiate yourself or you can do something

that other guys aren't doing, then it has to be a little advantage. It was interesting. I think four of the top five, like on Sunday, were whoop wearers. Really? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's, I mean, it's, it's becoming the norm. All of this recovery stuff, it's still in its infancy and there's so much more that we can learn about it. Totally. But the fact that it has had this following and people are really latching onto this idea that, you know, during the night when we sleep, if we can optimize that, we're going to perform better the next day. And like, who doesn't like sleeping? It's a nice thing to do. Yeah, it's a good thing to be good at. Exactly. Now, if you think about where you are today in your career and we reflect back on, you know, younger Rory, age 18, age 20. What are some of the things

from a mental standpoint that you're more focused on now? So I, so one of the things, you know, people can look back at my career and they do and they see the times where I've played really well and I've won major championships and I've, you know, done all that stuff. And every time they'll say what was different that week and I say, well, I was just in a really good place. But what does that mean. So for me, what I've tried to do the last couple of years is, is think about, okay, how can I get myself into that mental place more often? And how can I put a structure around it where, you know, I actually have control of it? Because, you know, I felt like there was just some weeks I turned up and I felt good and I played well. And it was more by accident. So for me,

it's about trying to put a structure around everything. And again, learning from my habits and, okay, what what enables me to do this well and when do I feel good and what's, you know, so I've started to read a lot more. Like I, and a lot of the stuff is self-help and stoicism and I'm big fan of Ryan Holiday and Caldunuport and these guys. But I like it. I've gotten into it and say maybe five years ago when I was younger, I never liked embracing a challenge. I loved when it was easy and everything was going well because, you know, who doesn't? But yeah, I've really tried to embrace the times when it is a challenge and things aren't going your way because that is ultimately what will make you better.

What are some of the tips that you've picked up regarding the mental side of it? I mean, obviously, you're reading a lot. I try to practice all like the P's, so patience, poise, perspective. Perspective to me has always been a big thing. You're trying to put everything in perspective. Yeah. So if you're having a rough day on the course, who cares, right? You know, there's other things in life that are much more important.

So, you know, not trying to make things bigger than what they are. Yeah. That's always been a, that's always been helpful for me. You know, if I'm having a bad round, I can always think, well, when I get off the course, my wife's going to be there and I'm still going to get a hug from her, and my mom and dad are still, you know, so there's a lot of different things that you can do. But, you know, for me, preparation is big. I know that I've prepared and I've done everything that I can to enable myself to play well.

You know, some days it's just not going to happen and that's fine. But I at least want to go into these tournaments knowing, well, you know, I feel like I've done everything. I can't. I don't feel ill prepared because if you feel ill prepared, you're panicked and you're not really where you want to be. So preparation for me has been huge. And learning what that good preparation is because it's different for everyone. Totally. Yeah. Some people like to practice more. people like to play more. And what I've, what I've started to do over the last few years, I used to love to just hit balls on the range. And I've started to play more and try to simulate certain conditions and try to, you know, even in practice rounds of tournaments, I'll have a bet with

my caddy Harry. And I'll always try to like, for one night, that tournament week, we always play for dinner. So I'll always, so he'll set me a target and say, okay, you know, if, if you should 64 better today, I'll pay for dinner. So then it's always a, it's like a little, like mini pre-tournament before the tournament starts just to get me in that in that mode of you know going through my routine and doing the right things and you know just getting into that mindset when you do a practice round like that how much does it feel like you've prepared for that like a real round and how different does it feel in the moment um it's it's hard so i try to do so we we usually have to do these pro-ams on wednesdays which are which are tough sometimes

A bit of a distraction. A little bit. But in a way, you're getting an extra look at the golf course. So if you can sort of use that to your advantage. So that's when, you know, maybe the first nine holes of that pro am, I'll try to spend time with my amateur partners and, you know, help them out, whatever. But then the second nine, once Harry sees that I'm losing interest, that's when he'll say, right, concentrate, nine holes, shoot three under par, everything in the hole. like you know so tries to get me in at least a little bit of a focus mode before going into the first day then you know yeah it's actually kind of surprising that that's the day before the tournament

yeah it's almost like it would be better for as a Tuesday or Monday yeah some of them have started to adopt doing like Tuesday proams yeah uh even Monday proams but um the nice thing with the bigger tournaments the majors the players um they don't have proams so you know you can get into your get into your sort of focused mindset when you need to. One thing I find just fascinating and talking to is you're literally the best in the world at your sport, and yet you are so deeply curious. And the fact that you're reading self-help books when you're the best is sort of amazing, right? And I think it should be inspiring for anyone.

I know it's certainly inspiring for me. It's just this point of view that you can keep getting better and you can keep pushing and keep pushing and keep pushing. And it reminds me a little bit. of all the outpouring that's come out for Kobe Bryant and how much people talked about how he was just constantly learning, constantly learning, constantly learning, constant learning.

And you guys have some similarities in that regard too in that, you know, both of you sort of had these shortened school experiences, right? And so it's interesting that you've tried to apply that in a lot of ways to your life is just like diving deep on your own education in other ways. So that's one of the things I say to people now

is I wish I had this hunger and thirst for learning back when I was in school that I do now. I feel a little bit the same way. I sort of, but I think you need to figure out what's important and what really gets into or, you know, like for me, reading these books has been, if I found a subject in school that I liked so much, I probably would have stayed in school, but I didn't. So I think it's been this journey for me of, okay, what do I really enjoy? And I enjoy reading about people throughout history that have gone on to do great things and

what can I learn from them and what can I apply to my own life. And so that's the fun part of it. And yeah, again, I, just because I'm ranked the best at what I do, it doesn't mean I can't get better. Totally. You know, and the day that I stopped trying to get better is the day that I'm going to, you know, hang the clubs up and do something else because, you know, I feel like that's what's led me to this point. I'm constantly, I'm even, you know, I'm asking guys, you know, how do you play

a certain shot or, you know, what do you think about when you're putting or, you know, how do you read a certain, you know, I'm always, I'm always just, I think it's either it's in you or it's not. Yeah, it has to be in you. Yeah, and for me, it always has been that way. Because talent can really only get you so far, and then hard work can only really get to you so far. I think that deep curiosity, that can be a huge edge. I think so. I, and I've, there's always been this stigma with me over the years is always just insanely talented and, you know, but does that, does that bother you? It does bother me because I know how much work that I've put in. And, you know, some people, yeah, you know, people only see me at golf tournaments and they, like, I, I try to spend as

the least amount of time at the golf course as I can because I wanted to be efficient and I want to do my warm up and do my practice, play the golf and get out of there. I'm not spending 12 hours a day at that place because I don't need to. Yeah. And it's not good for me. But I think people see that and they say, well, he just shows up and he does this thing. But they don't see when I'm home and they don't see all the stuff that I do. And I did an interview a couple weeks ago where journalists asked me something similar. Does it, you know, does it get to you that people just see, you know, say that you're talented. And I said, there's two guys where I live down in Jupiter that practice harder than anyone else. And it's myself and Justin Thomas. And there's no...

Justin Thomas, whoop guy too. Yeah, exactly. And there's no coincidence why we're two of the best players in the world. I see how hard JT works and, you know, he sees how hard that, you know, that I work and we, you know, he's only child as well. We sort of have some similarities. Yeah, I didn't know So I have a lot of respect for JT because I see how hard he works and I think he tries to put as much into his game as I do. And again, there's no coincidence why we're, you know, two of the top players in the world. I imagine you've gotten to know a number of really fascinating people just, you know, in the last couple decades. Like who are some people that you've learned a lot from or, you know, tried to pick, pick little insights on your own journey?

Yeah. Yeah, I've been lucky enough. I've, I've, I've, I've, I've, I've, I've, I've, I've, I've met a lot of really cool sports people. And some people that I didn't, not that I didn't like before I met them, but I wasn't really that interested. So I come from the UK, soccer is huge for us. So, you know, meeting a soccer player, meeting someone that played for Man United back in the day

is huge for me. But meeting some of the athletes in American sports didn't mean that much to me. But I met Tom Brady for the first time a few years ago. And we've had a really good relationship since. And to sort of pick his brain about things, he is the most competitive person I have ever met. That's cool.

It doesn't matter whether he's on the football field or whether he's on the golf course. Whatever he is doing, he is so competitive. And it's this drive and this passion and this fire to be the best at what he does. And I love that about Tom. and I think that is why he's had such a great career. But he's been someone that I've really looked up to

and didn't really know much about before I met him. I knew that he was a quarterback for the Patriots and he was a really good player. You weren't an NFL fan. I wasn't really, yeah, but then getting to know him, I'm like, God, this guy is like so cool. Wired. Yeah, it's awesome.

And it's great to see even at, you know, I hope when I'm his age, I still have the passion for golf that he has for football because he is like so in to what he does. As we go forwards with Whoop here, what are some things that you're excited about for the product or hope that we can introduce or provide? I don't know. Obviously, I'm really happy with what you guys do right now.

Sleep thing is cool. Obviously, the study that was published a couple weeks ago in Arizona is awesome, sort of validates if you want to talk about that a bit more. Well, so you're referring to the sleep validation that we had. It's now published in the clinical journal of sleep medicine. And it says that WOOP is the most accurate, non-invasive sleep monitor, which for us is like, I mean, we've been working at that for eight years now. So it's pretty amazing.

Yeah. So I think knowing that I wear something on my body that is the most accurate out there is really cool. And, yeah, I mean, we were talking just before this. podcast about the metabolic unit that you guys are partner with and using that technology. Yeah, exactly. So that's something I'm excited to try out as well. But I mean, you guys are, I mean, doing a heck of a job. And it's really helped me. I'm living a healthier life because of it. And I'm also performing better and my careers become better because of it as well. So, and I think other players in the golf world have seen that and have started to wear it. And I just, I think

it's just going to keep growing and growing. I think it's awesome. Who's the most surprising person you've met who had a whoop strap on? I saw Tiger was wearing one for a little bit. So I messaged him and I said, oh, you're wearing a whip. He goes, yeah, but it doesn't help me sleep. I said, that's not the point. I said to measure your sleep because Tiger's a notoriously bad sleeper. Yeah. I've always been fascinated about that in his career, that he's been so successful without sleep. Yeah, exactly. So I thought it was pretty cool that he was on it for a little bit. I said, it doesn't put you to sleep. I mean, it just tells you all you sleep. But I thought it was pretty cool that he was wearing it for a little bit to just, again, you know, someone

that's the best at what he does and trying to get better and trying to figure out, okay, what can I do? Yeah, that's the thing that's amazed me so much, even from the earliest days, just how willing the world's bests are to get that extra point zero, whatever. And in the case of whoop, it looks like it can be more than that as an advantage. Definitely. I mean, how many hours in our lifetime do we sleep? It's a third of our lives, hopefully. Yeah, exactly. So if you can do that right, it makes the other two-thirds a lot easier.

Well, look, man, I just want you to know it's a real pleasure to get to do this with you. And it's such an inspiration to have, you know, you talk about the value that you've gotten out of the product. Because for all of us who are grinding at the office and, you know, just hoping that we're creating something in this world that people get value out of, it's really inspiring. inspiring to see you. Thank you. No, I, again, it's helped me an awful lot. And I know it can help everyone, whether you're a professional athlete or someone that just wants to feel better or perform better in your daily life or your job. I mean, it can help everyone. So thank you.

All right. Well, thanks, brother. Thanks for coming on the podcast. It's been great. It's awesome. Thank you. Such a pleasure. Thank you to Rory for coming on the podcast. Rory, stay green during the this crazy pandemic, keep that respiratory rate flat. We're always rooting for you. Good luck when golf gets back going. For those of you new to the WOOP platform, you can join for 15% off by using the code Will Ahmed at Checkout.

That's W-I-L-L-A-H-M-E-D. And that will give you 15% off a WOOP membership, which includes hardware and software and analytics and a membership services team to really help you. understand you. I hope you'll check that out. And you can find us at whoop.com, W-H-O-O-O-P.com. For those of you, W-P members, make sure that you've updated to the latest W-P app. We've got some great new features in there. We just released respiratory rate only a few days ago, which is going to allow you to see your respiratory rate within sleep. Again, this is something that we've seen

could be a precursor to COVID-19 symptoms. So if you have an elevated respiratory rate, it may be a sign that you have COVID-19. We're doing a ton of research with the Cleveland Clinic and CQU on that specific topic. We also just released a monthly performance assessment that incorporates all of your learnings from the Woop Journal. It's going to be really powerful for people to understand how all of their different behaviors, lifestyle decisions affect their body. So check that out. Also in the Woop app, you can check out the locker too, where we're updating a ton of our findings on COVID-19 and other show notes related to various podcast guests.

That's all I've got for you today. Wishing you and your loved ones' health and happiness in this crazy time. We'll be back next week. Thank you.