WHOOP Podcast - Scott Stallings, 3-Time PGA Tour winner, talks applying fitness to golf and the health and lifestyle changes he's made to transform his mind and body.

Episode Date: July 9, 2019

Three-time PGA Tour winner Scott Stallings discusses the instant he decided to be a golfer (5:08), playing with Tiger Woods (7:05), the growing role of fitness in golf (10:52), the biggest moments of his career (13:50), the physical transformation he's undergone (16:46) that began with a chronic fatigue diagnosis (17:38), discovering allergens and solving his health issues (19:29), CrossFit and Rich Froning (26:10), lessons learned from WHOOP (28:06), cold recovery techniques (37:27), kettlebell juggling (41:25), visualization and the mental reset button (53:34), and his best advice for aspiring athletes (1:03:19).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

We discovered that there were secrets that your body was trying to tell you that could really help you optimize performance, but no one could monitor those things. And that's when we set out to build the technology that we thought could really change the world. Welcome to the Whoop podcast. I'm your host, Will Ahmed, founder and CEO of Whoop, where we are on a mission to unlock human performance. Having recorded about 25 episodes on the WOOP podcast, I can truly say it's a great lens into understanding how high performers, top performers, do what they do. At WOOP, our clients range from the best professional athletes in the world to Navy SEALs,

to fitness enthusiasts, to Fortune 500 CEOs and executives. The common thread among WOOP members is a passion to improve. What does it take to optimize performance for athletes, for humans, really anyone? And now that we've just launched all-new whoop strap 3.0 featuring Woop Live, which takes real-time training and recovery analysis to the next level, you're going to hear how many of these users are optimizing their body with WOOP and with other things in their life. On this podcast, we dig deeper, we interview experts, we interview industry leaders across sports, data, technology, physiology, athletic achievement, you name it. How can you use data to improve? your body? What should you change about your life? My hope is that you'll leave these conversations with some new ideas and a greater passion for performance. With that in

mind, I welcome you to the WOOP podcast. Whoop has been a vital part, both on and off the course for me and a good way to stay accountable because I know that continually put yourself in that environment to push yourself in the right direction and to wake up better the next day than you were the day before and do the things you need to do to make that happen. What's up, folks? My guest is pro golfer Scott Stallings, three-time PGA tour winner and a whoop member for the past two years.

Since being diagnosed with chronic fatigue in 2015 and fearing his career might be over, Scott has made a number of health and lifestyle changes that have gotten him into incredible shape. We talk about those lifestyle changes, the amazing physical transformation that he's undergone, and the role whoop has played in it, how he got into CrossFit with the help of Rich Froning and why he makes him a better golfer, what it's like to play with Tiger Woods, an athlete I've idolized for a long time, and the most pressure that Scott's ever felt on a golf course. I think no matter what, if you're a golf or an athlete or someone, you know, just looking to improve your overall well-being, there's something for you here. Scott's a really insightful guy. And without further ado, here's Scott. Scott, thanks for coming on. Nice, man. Thank you guys for having me. It's nice to be back in Boston.

So we're recording this here in Boston in the Wupa office. And I've been a big fan of years for a while. And obviously, I was pumped to find out that you're a Woop user and been getting value out of the product. It feels like right now we've got a nice little great. ass roots movement and golf. I guess. I mean, people are starting to become aware as, you know, the product and just how it can, you know, truly optimize both, you know, for me, on the course, off the course, and give me the best idea as far as what's the best version of myself and, you know, how to prepare, how to recover, and what makes up the difference when, you know, there's maybe suspect performance and, you know, kind of look into the data a little bit. Have you seen a correlation between how high your recovery is on whoop and how you feel over a golf ball?

No, I try not to look into that. You try not to think about that? Especially in the situation, you know, you're playing well in a tournament when you wake up. It's like 38%. It's like, oh, no. But, you know, the recovery score is not necessarily the most important thing for me. HRV, resting heart rate, and sleep performance is the three biggest thing that I look to the most. and that's truly been a direct reflection on how, you know, my sleep is obviously the biggest

priority in kind of learning, you know, the best sleep habits I could possibly have. We just spent some time with Kristen in there, and I mean, I could spend hours with her just asking her question. Yeah, Kristen's awesome, right? And I feel like just her knowledge as far as just how to truly optimize every part of your day to perform your best is just something. something that's directly applicable with what we do out there on tour. Well, this is Kristen Holmes, who's our VP of Performance at Whoop,

and she works with a lot of professional athletes, obviously Scott included. So I've got so many things I want to ask you about, but let's go back for a second. So you're a professional golfer. Did you always know you wanted to be a professional golfer? I wanted to be a baseball player. Like, truly, as we're looking from this office at Fenway Park, if they would let me go, like, sit on the bench and let me play when they, they're like blowing out a team like there's a chance that might be enough there's a part of

life where I could just go and drive into Fenway Park every day I mean growing up in the summers in New England I was born just down the road in Worcester and you know so this is a area of the world that I feel very comfortable in and I die hard baseball fan still am to the stay and that's what I did and golf was something I did when baseball season wasn't happening soccer basketball everything but when Tiger won the Masters and 97. It completely changed. I always watched the Masters with my dad growing up, and this 21-year-old kid just dominated, and my birthday is the last week in March, so it's always right before the Masters. And I made my first hole in one the week before, then Tiger won the Masters, and I was

on a golf high. Oh, amazing. Called my baseball coach and told him I wasn't playing on this travel team we played 6080 games a year said i wasn't going to practice i was going to play golf and i was horrible total like luck hole in one like bladed it hit the flag went in but it was a good shot in my mind but that kind of set me off to i was going to chase and pursue a chance to try to golf so how old were you in 1997 i was 12 so yeah you and i are close in age so i'm 29 you're what like 34 yeah So Tiger Woods, I mean, that dude, he's like up there with Jordan for me and just in terms of being an inspiring athlete to watch. I mean, some of my most vivid sports memories are watching Tiger Woods.

Yeah, the first time I had a chance to play with him was in 2012 at Memorial where he won the tournament. And we walked up with the first tee, and I'd met him before, but, you know, people, obviously they remember him now because he won the Masters, but people don't realize that, you know, 2013, he was a player of the year. Yeah, right. Everyone forgets that. Like, that's not that long ago.

But, you know, people have, especially nowadays, have very short-term memories. Like, what have you done for me lately? But I was there. I was at those tournaments. Yeah. I remember that. And I just, I remember walking up to him on the first tee. And we had met a few times before, but we'd never played together in a tournament.

And I said, hey, man, just, I truly appreciate. you inspiring me to want to be out here. And not very often you see athletes that get a chance to play and compete against the people that inspired them to want to chase after a dream. And I just said, I don't want anything from you other than the chance to just say thanks. That's pretty cool. I could have done any other myriad of things in my life. But, you know, what you did and for the sport of golf and the game of golf in general,

you took a kid from Tennessee and made him want to chase something that maybe he wouldn't have otherwise and now I get a chance to be out there and play and compete against him it's pretty great it's amazing it's funny even when he was at his low like after the DUI or whatever

like that was probably rock bottom I don't forget when that was like 2016 and there was a back surgery that year or something I still felt like he was going to come back and win again I don't know why but I was definitely in the minority It sounds like you maybe believed that, too. To see what he was capable of, like, that doesn't just go away.

I mean, you know, when he took that time away from the game that kind of gave everyone else a chance to catch up so that whatever advantage he had kind of shrunk down because everyone kind of, like, had some time to figure out maybe I need to push it in the gym. Maybe I need to, you know, practice differently or, you know, whatever it may be. But I think that, you know, anyone that was playing and knew what he had accomplished, knew that if he were able to ever tap into that again, like, watch out. But I think the fear of when he started sneaking up the leaderboard, I think that's probably gone. There's still a huge level of respect.

But no one, there's not a single person on tour that is scared of another player now. The level of competitive anybody can win out there. Yeah, it's cool, actually, how it's opened up a little. bit for sure you see first-time winters all the time whereas before there was such a oh no here he comes and i saw a little bit of that in 2013 just you know as he started creeping up because i mean crowds and everything that happened when he started playing well is just sort of it kind of came with the territory especially if you're playing anywhere around him but to see where he is now and And I played with them back-to-back days at Torrey Pines this year, Saturday and Sunday.

And we kind of hemmed and haught it around on Saturday, both shot even paring into playing together again on Sunday. And we're even parers. And it's this unbelievable up and down on the fourth hole because we started on the back and ends up burning five to last six holes to shoot 67. Like, that just happened out of nowhere. And it was just like easy. And it's like, man, it's amazing. You totally take for granted how when a guy is truly on, like how they can make a really difficult golf course look very, very, very manageable

and almost to point, like, wow, that was awesome. Yeah. I'm not there shooting even par. Well, you know, it's interesting, too. Like, I think, like, you and a lot of the golfers coming up now are like part of this sort of tiger generation where you watch this guy dominate the tour, but also, look dominant. He looked like a professional athlete. And sitting with you here, I mean, you look like you might be going to the CrossFit game. It's not necessarily, you know, your next FGA tour

event. So it's cool, too, just to see that transformation. I mean, guys like Rory and Kepka and Dustin Johnson, I mean, they look like professional athletes. Yeah, the tour 30 years ago and the tour now is drastically different. You go up and down the range. There may not. Fitness is this new thing. Yeah, everyone's doing something. Yeah. You know, they may not tell you they are, but you can't sustain it out there, especially the volume and the level at which we play and just the frequency. I mean, no one realizes that our schedule is as long as it is.

I mean, you know, somewhere between your average player on tour is between 250 to 280 days a year on the road. It's a grind. Yeah, I mean, 30 events. I mean, next year there'll be 49 events on tour. You're going to play in 49 events? No, that's how many there are. That's how many tournaments. So how many will you play in?

Playing 27 this year. And that's... How many different cities, 27? Yeah. And we play in Dallas twice. And I can't think if we go to... Yeah, Dallas twice. We play in Fort Worth, so that's the only place that we stay there.

But, I mean, still the level of travel, the... Let's not talk about mental fatigue. Because it's a grind from that, too. I mean, golf in itself. for those who don't play golf we're listening, I think is as mentally difficult as anything you can do in your life. Yeah, and I think... If you're competing, just to be clear.

If you're screwing around, it can be one of the most relaxing, fun things. I try to do that as much as I possibly can to off the course, to try to find buddies of mine that are literally horrible players, but just like to go out there and have a good time. Sure. Especially to the level that I'm... I'll fill that void for you. We'll go play piping or something.

That's great. But to the level of where people just enjoy the game, you know, they're going to go out there, they're going to shoot 75 or 90, it doesn't matter. But just the fact that they're not at work, they're going to go out there and enjoy it. And I think I need to see more of that because I just see golf course grind. And I love the game. I love the fact that I think it's a huge blessing. I get a chance to be out there and be on tour.

I literally couldn't imagine doing anything else. But I need some reminders as far as every now and then it's like there. this thing is meant to be enjoyed. Totally. And it is a job, it is a profession, and it needs to be taken seriously, but it also needs to be enjoyed. I think that makes the kind of ebbs and flows

as far as the season, especially as long as it is, a little bit more manageable. What are some things that you do? Well, first of all, what's the most pressure you felt on a golf course? The most pressure I fell on the golf course to get my card was 2010.

We were at, Orange County National and I was playing with a buddy mine and Scott Brown. The qualifying system is totally different than it was. Like I said, next year it would be my 10th year. But I was staying with my buddy Scott Brown. We're playing our practice and he looked at me and he said, buddy, if you don't get your card this week, you're never going to get it. And he totally meant it as a joke. But it really stuck.

He's right. This place is made for me. and you know the golf course and the conditions and it was wet and it was cold and just everything just attributed to me like playing well I mean that was forever ago now but I remember like sanding on the first tee like if I don't do it now like I may never do it and I I finished six I got my card and but that the first tee of cute that's literally one of the most like I don't know if I'm going to be able to make it and now the first time you Sorry, you originally qualified, or you misqualifying by one shot in 2009.

Yeah, that was the best thing that ever happened to me. And that's, because I had an adverse result, people don't take that very well. I'm a big believer in positive things from all outcomes. So tell me about it. So I missed my card by shot, and I was devastated. But looking at how my career progressed, so I play the web, it was. it was the nationwide tour at the time now it's the web.com by transition into going I didn't know how to travel I definitely didn't know how to travel internationally my first two tournaments on

the web were Australia and New Zealand so you're saying as a consequence of not getting your PJ a tour card you had to do this thing that was a grind it was it was a ride but I was I was completely not prepared for it either yeah especially you know I had I was used to driving the tournaments I was used to living out of a car pretty much. My wife and I had this, I don't remember what year it was, but it was burnt orange and it was a Honda element, and man, we just beat the crap out of this thing. And, I mean, that was our life. We didn't know anything different.

So the chance to go, like, travel and go abroad and learn how to kind of manage a schedule that was new to us. And then to come full circle a year later and get my tour card, and then, go out there and miss my first five cuts in a row. It's like, boy, I can talk about getting punched in the face. And I had a year of experience under my belt, let alone. Like, I don't know what I'd have done if I hadn't had that because I could, especially you understand like the length of the season and how there are going to be ups and downs

and how to kind of manage that a little bit better. Now physically, in 2010, you look different than you look today. Like, you're, one of my favorite books is called Younger Next Year. You, like, jumped a decade. Like, you're great. We had the biological age question with Kristen earlier just a little while ago. And, yeah, it's been a – I train's issuing would probably be a light way to say it, but I've learned a lot in the past few years,

and I've had a lot of people come along, Adam, my trainer, and PT is here with me. Shout out Adam. Yeah. And, you know, he's definitely one of the guys that, you know, came alongside me and, you know, through some injuries, through some on the course, off the course issues, and he's kind of been there by, I mean, he's my trainer, PT, but he's also one of my closest friends and kind of helped me manage through all that. But I've got to change.

So 2015, you get diagnosed with chronic fatigue. Yeah. That's tough if you're going to be a professional athlete. Chronic fatigue was probably like a general term. There was a bunch of, like, things that kind of was in there. Like, I had a sleep study where the lady said, if I did to give you a diagnosis, I'd diagnose you as a functional narcoleptic. Oh, my God. So I had two sleep studies, back-to-back days, you know, with different kind of modalities, trying to help you sleep better.

And combined in two nights sleep, I had 15 minutes of REM sleep. Oh, man. So I basically just laid there with my eyes closed for a really long time. Now, fast forward to today, how many minutes of REM do you get on WOOP? oh like today we looked at that had two hours and five minutes of deep so listen to that folks that's a comeback story right there if you are at home looking at your whoop app and you're not getting up rems sleep listen to scott i i i i deep didn't even register yeah so let's talk about okay so let's talk about what happened right first of all you lose 50 pounds since the chronic fatigue

diagnosis yeah so last january you know that kind of spurred on a whole life transition i just my daughter is born I've had two kids been married for 12 years in August and my wife Jennifer I have a son Finn he's six and a daughter Millie she's three and just the what that looks like in life as far as to try to manage that at home on the road and kind of understanding what all it looks like I mean I just got to the point where it's like I something's got to give here and I was sleeping all the time I was trying to do whatever I possibly could to take care of myself. I'd start to kind of transition into some better habits.

And I was doing things that were, quote, unquote, better for me, but I felt awful and said, man, maybe there's something wrong. What was an example of something that you were doing that was good for you, but you felt awful? Like, cleaned up my diet, found out like I was highly allergic to sweet potatoes. Oh, wow. Yeah. But before you were eating sweet potatoes, because he thought they were good. I mean, yeah, absolutely, complex carb, ate them all time.

and just, you know, a huge part of my diet, just highly inflammatory. Now, what test did you do to figure out your allergic? I did MRT and a myriad of other... So we'll put some of this in the show notes. Yeah. And that showed you you're allergic to sweet potatoes. Anything else? Yeah, I was a couple, like, other things that weren't a huge part of,

but sweet potatoes were drastically part. But it was just highly inflammatory, like I reacted to it big time. And my inflammatory markers in 2015 were borderline, like, geriatric. The guy that was reading my results looked at me, especially when he did the biological age. And he said, if I did not physically see you in front of me and know that, he said, I would literally think this was a person getting ready to go to like a nursing home. Not looking at you at 30 years old, like, and you're trying to play professional golf on the PGA tour. It's actually amazing that you're like finishing rounds based on this. Like, 2015, I played with Webb Simpson on Saturday at the players.

First of all, I have no idea how I made the cut. I had my blood drawn seven days in a row. I looked like some kind of addict. They were trying to do all these, like, multiple times a day testing as far as cortisol and just trying to figure out, like, truly, what wasn't functioning optimally, which was about everything. And we're walking down the 16th Fairway, and anyone that's ever seen Webb play, he walks incredibly fast

and plays, I mean, it's just to keep up with him is a lot. And truly one of my better friends on tour and we're walking down the fairway and I'm like forever behind and he turns around and he says, man, I have no idea what's going on with you, but like you probably need to figure out like

you look awful. That's the way that I took it. He said it significantly nicer than that, but that's the way that I took it. Like man, do I really look as bad as I feel out here? And I mean, that was a really tough time for me. you know on the course off the course like I didn't really have any kind of clear guidance as far as what direction I was headed in and you know thankfully I had guys like Adam and other people kind of

come around it's like all right we maybe don't know what's happened but we're going to find the steps to figure it out so step one you figure out all right you're allergic to these things you've been eating all the time that's got to help yeah that and then I went to I went to a Diagnosition at UCLA who specializes in the endocrine system. Actually, he reached out to a guy here in Boston who's an endocrinologist and he recommended the guy in, the guy in Boston was more of a treatment guy where the guy at UCLA was a more of a kind of like house. I told everyone he looks like, he was like house and Colonel Sanders combined. And I spent two days with this guy and he said, we don't know what's going to happen, but could be bad, could be good, but anything's

possible. And he basically, a couple days later, we sorted it out and gave me a list of a bunch of tests that any doctor could run. And, you know, it was an allergy test. It was a food test, it was a sleep test. A few other blood tests to kind of figure out truly what was happening. And in 2015, free testosterone is 0.8. Total testosterone was 98. Wait, what? That is so low for the record. So just to put this in perspective, I think the scale is like zero to twelve hundred or fifteen hundred yeah man so inflammatory markers were literally they had not seen numbers that high for a 30 year old oh my gosh so you had a testosterone of you said 98 98 so that's that was that was like my low right so you want to

be in a range of i think it's like 300 to a thousand but you want to be on the high end of that range yeah so the fact that you're a professional and professional athletes normally are on the into that range. So the fact that you were below even the... Yeah, there was a time that my wife had a higher testosterone than I did, which is scary to say. So I imagine taking some kind of testosterone therapy would help a lot. Yeah, but through the tour and the way that that was not my issue. That was a byproduct. Oh, okay, so it's the result of all this other stuff. And everyone's like, oh, I need to boost my tea or I need to, you know, change my cortisol or all this, that is all byproduct of mostly life.

And, you know, I play a game that involves a ton of travel, high-stress environment for a really long amount of time. So you're at that, like, fight or flight and super-focused for an extremely long amount of time. And so the amount of ways to get away from that, just if you're slightly inclined to kind of go into that, I was stressed before I got to the course. Right, right. Just by my body. And then I'd go out there and grind and just deal with the day-to-day life, and it was just magnified. So, you know, I didn't have the internal environment to be able to handle that the way I needed to.

And so I'd get back and kind of start finding the answers to all the questions that we had. And, you know, sleep study, allergy test, and just kind of slowly but surely kind of put all the pieces together. And I had a major sinus surgery that kind of started trending everything in the right direction and sucked for, about three weeks. But that improved your sleep. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. And like almost immediately, once I recovered from the surgery, my sleep increased exponentially

and my cardiovascular ability, because I mean, you're basically operating in a deficit forever. You know, your heart and lungs are having to just pump so much because it shouldn't operate properly. So now I would not say that I'm a runner by any means, but. Just any cardiovascular workout, we worked out with the No Bull guys earlier today. Nice. Just like, I feel like you could do this forever.

And anything in that, like, middle ground as far as, like, heart rate, like, I feel like I could do that forever. Because I just operated almost in like an elevation mask for a really, really long time. And so, you know, slowly but surely starting to kind of figure it out. And then I got a little bit better at that. and started seeing a little bit of results and then 20 the towards end 2017 transition in 2018 I got a call from rich frowning and

rich fronning being the crossfit girl yes we went to college together we actually didn't know each other in college we knew each other after the fact but it sent me a text he said hey I started this diet plan I think you should call this guy and first of all my first question was why are you on a diet? You're literally the fittest guy in the world. He said, man, it's kind of helping me manage my travel schedule, my time in the gym. And I called this guy and the Renaissance periodization group, Nick Shaw and his team. And it was kind of work through that as far as trying to dial in my nutrition. And at that time, I was about just over

2.30 and 26 and a half percent body fat. That was January. of last year. Dude, so this has been a fast, like, you know, body transformation. Yeah. Like, we're here, what, 18 months later? Yeah. And you've lost 50 pounds? Yeah, about 185, 188, and about 10%.

It's amazing. Yeah, it's kind of wild to see, but, you know, because obviously I'm just, the aesthetics and the stuff was never really the result. It was more just creating the best. version of myself both on and off the course for for my job for my family for my wife for just all the things that I kind of I don't think I necessarily neglected I just didn't have the right information as far as to implement a plan I just just trying to guess and hope for the best and now I got a pretty good idea you guys have been a great partner to come alongside and help me evaluate

I'm making this little change we'll see what kind of difference that makes and you know we just spent an hour or so with Kristen figuring out different ways to kind of even take that to the next level. Yeah. So how did you hear about whoop? I had the internet's a crazy world, so I knew a little bit. Internet special place. Yes. It can be great, but it can also be rough. But I think that I had some friends of mine that were starting to get into it. And obviously the familiarity with the Boston area, just trying to, I kind of just knew all of it in general and reached out and had a friend of mine that knew someone in the company. Next thing you know I have a phone call from AJ. It's like, let's see what happens. And, you know, it was kind of an interesting test study

with the way that we travel, the way that we play. And, you know, the first phone call was like, you play this? How many tournaments? I was like, yeah, roughly about 30, 30 weeks. And that was like he was just dumbfounded at just the length of school. schedule that we have. And, you know, so it kind of, that was three years ago. So you've been on whoop for a lot. I have. And I've learned a lot, way more than I thought I could ever learn from a watch band that doesn't tell time. That was the first question I get all time. It doesn't tell time. It was like, it's great. I don't ever look at it. Period. I love that. Is that a watch? No, it's a whoop. Yeah. What's a whoop? The number of times I've heard that exact exchange.

Yeah, it's a whoop. It's a whoop. It's a whoop. a watch that doesn't tell time yeah that's a good pitch actually i'm going to start using that whoop it's a watch that doesn't tell time yes everyone's like well it should get a it should get a face is like no it's perfect the way it is i never look at it it's just and it's telling me everything i need to know so what have you learned from boop uh definitely sleep my sleep habits uh and training regimen a little bit understanding like when my body responds to certain styles of training we basically we don't have a enough of a break during, there's two kind of small off seasons and they're short. So we don't really have

like a periodization schedule to like do a strength phase. And, you know, so we basically, our week is like a microcosm of how you do a year. So heavier, longer, slower training sessions throughout the week to shorter, faster, lighter. That makes sense. With respect to my playing schedule, T times. So let's say like Monday, Tuesday, you'll bang. and deadlift and do stuff like that heavier longer slower a little bit more volume intensive more weight Wednesday is always a metabolic reset you know some kind of you know cardio intervals whether it's time you know calories we started messing around some nasal breathing we started talking to Kristen about oh cool uh started practicing like three mile runs nasal only man it's brutal oh that's

tough oh man's brutal so this is where you're you're restricting breathing through the mouth yeah basically trying to make your body. Yeah, you're like, you're only breathing to your nose. It is, I could not have, I'd have probably passed out before I had my sinus surgery. But now, like, just training that pathway where I couldn't breathe through my nose. And it's just kind of a good way to kind of modulate your intensity too because you just can't operate to your full max potential when you do that. So, and then more rotary specific stuff, I would never say that we have golf specific workouts because I think that's such a cliche thing to say. and hopefully through my position in golf and fitness in general

to be able to kind of show that, I mean, you can make anything golf specific. You can make power lifting. You can make yoga. You can make endurance running. You can make, you know, CrossFit. You can make kettlebell, you know, whatever. You can go through basically every methodology and fitness

and figure out a way to apply it to the game of golf. Whether it's even just the mental clarity you get from like a yoga session, I started doing yoga in Phoenix with this class, and I had this 65-year-old lady. She was super nice, and she was just encouraging me because, you know, they have like every different level of, like, the poses, and I was always, I was always level one. I never, I never stepped into any past. And she was like, come on, Scott, you can do it. You can do it today.

It's like, ma'am, I don't have this. But just trying to learn everything I possibly can to figure out ways to, you know, if I move better, if I'm stronger, I'm faster. like that's going to apply to better on the course. Do you hit the ball further now that you're stronger? Yeah, I feel like I can do, I get that question a lot. Well, you're stronger, you're in better shape. You should hit it further. It's like I can hit it further with significantly less effort. My back doesn't bother me. I had a bunch of low back problems. And I mean, you're carrying around 50 extra pounds. Like, I mean, there's a lot of stress that happens. Totally. The thing that I've always found a little bit fascinating about golf, though,

From a, like, power standpoint is it doesn't seem that correlated with strength. Like, when I was 17 or 18 years old, like, I was just a gangly teenager, and I could still crush the ball. And it's interesting, like, I feel like now maybe it does correlate with guys on tour, but you tell me. Well, I mean, there's two different ways, and we were talking about with the on-it podcast guys, like explaining like training methodologies that are rotary specific to you know there's ways to create speed there's rotators which are predominantly like the smaller guys especially they're closer to ground and then there's the pushers so imagine um you know but you're trying to basically double or triple like your body weight how you're pushing out of the ground so we do a ton of

dead lifts. We do basically all our lower body strength and exercises out of the ground and that's how I create power. I'm not, I rotate significantly better than I used to, but nothing like a Justin Thomas that's, you know, 150 pounds and his hip rotation is probably quadruple mine. Right. And he hits it far too. And he hits it very far, especially for a guy that's not overly tall and doesn't have a tremendous amount of body weight. Yeah. So he's a rotator and he's a great example and he pushes out of the ground hard but he's pushing and creating a massive amount of rotation where I'm pushing creating a lot of up force and basically like trying to shift that club in there so that's interesting so effective there's two different ways to generate power on a golf course

absolutely rotator and one is like effectively through your legs no doubt and that's definitely where most of my lower body strengthening exercises that's where it's focused so if I generate power from being a rotator even if I'm getting stronger maybe it doesn't matter as much because you're going to you have a pattern that's ingrained so your your training style would just be trying to strengthen those to where you know maybe you create a little bit more range of motion maybe your in range becomes a little bit more so you can you know you're in range and your back swing so you can create a little bit more torque yeah but then you have to have the strengthening side like for right hand in golf you have to have a strength side you know on your left hip to be able to create that

new force and that new rotation or I mean we were talking about training Olympic lifters or with golf that don't know how to foot flare. Oh, right. And because everything's straight and watching just going to an orthopedic with their labor room in their hand and be like, here, can you put this back in? Because, you know, you try to rotate so hard into your right hip as the right hand to golfer. You have to have that added margin to be able to rotate in there.

And then not only rotate, but then actually push out of it. Yeah, interesting. So it's totally different. You need to spend a minute looking at my guys. We can manage it. Yeah, that's what I need. I've done a FaceTime lesson with a CrossFit Olympic lifter. Oh, nice.

And Margo Alvarez, she lives in Las Vegas. She started doing some long drive, and she's an unbelievable athlete and trained Olympic lifter. But, like, watching her, like, doesn't know how to tilt, doesn't know how to foot flare, all this thing is like no way you'd ever teach that in Olympic lifting at all. But in terms of golf, like, you're trying to create as much. opportunity to create speed and I mean she was compromised she was telling me her back was hurting her hip was hurting it's like I don't understand like what I'm doing it's like man we got to

tilt it up a little bit and her club head speed well up like 10 miles an hour that's cool and just from just some small little changes that you know kind of go into putting herself in the environment where she can go out there and do it she's actually asking herself to do but so let's go back let's go back for a second to the week okay you said you know a week a tournament, right? So you're doing heavy lifting in the beginning of the week, right? We were talking about how you've learned a lot about your sleep from WOOP. How do you think about things like HRV and resting heart rate over the course of the week? You know, some of the things that you thought were key indicators for recovery. You'll probably want to see those go, you know,

like you want your HRV to go up, your resting hurry to go down as you get closer to competition, I would think. Yeah, a lot of it's just kind of managing it and understanding. understanding like where it's at and where it can go and I know that you know sleep is the biggest indicator for me as far as when I travel like last night we flew in we got in like 11 o'clock we had some other stuff to do in the city and first thing I did before I went to bed cold shower first thing I do when I get off a plane and especially if I go into a city early in the morning first thing I do is work out just you know so I love cold showers I've been talking about them on this podcast yeah I think they're amazing um I got into a little

little late, maybe like eight months ago or so. But I find if I do it too late in the night, then it actually like kind of wakes me up. So you don't have that issue. I don't have that issue. I generally run pretty hot throughout. And especially coming off, I mean, I'll get bundled up on a plane. I'm the guy that I can sleep on a plane at six in the morning. I can sleep on a plane at 10 o'clock at night, 2 o'clock in the afternoon, it doesn't matter. Like, I can fall asleep at any time. And, you know, so I'm bundled up, hoodie, whatever, and I'm ready to roll. So it just kind of puts me in that, cools me down, jump in the bed, and I'm done.

That's amazing. And that was not always the case. It was, man, I'd put my foot in, and I'd put my leg in. Now I just turn it on. In terms of being comfortable with the cold. And now I just take it. I tell people this all the time because they're like, oh, I don't like cold chouse. I was like, I hated cold showers.

I really hated them. But your body weirdly starts to crave them. Yeah, I definitely crave the ice. I crave cryo, especially after like a hot day and then like a big training session. Like I crave, like whether it's a cryo thing or ice bath or. So you'll do ice baths even while you're on. We're building a barn on the back of my property right now. And I've plumed a commercial ice machine.

Oh, sick. And I've had a bunch of different companies reach out as far as, like, you know, we make a standing ice bath or I bought a horse feeder tub and it's probably going to stay. I've seen everyone do the freezers and, you know, where you kind of keep the temperature and use the tablets and what to keep it clean and, you know, that may be something I'm looking into, but that horse feeder tub has been near and dear. I've learned a lot of that thing. So that's literally what they would do for a horse. They would put, yeah, horse feed in it and I brought a tractor supply and that's where I do my ice pad. So you're a sicko.

Yeah, you're like super deep on this. Well, I just try to get in there and there's a mental component actually putting yourself in there. Totally. Totally. And, you know, where the cryo, the person sitting there hitting the button and you're standing there and you're having a conversation. But when you're sitting there looking at that full thing of ice and literally, man, I don't want to get in there, but you force yourself to get in there. And you'll go up to your neck or full? We'll dunk all the way under. Okay. And I've done it all. And how long will you try to stay in there?

A fairly long time. Like 10 minutes. Yeah. A lot of it, especially being outside, it depends on the temperature. Like, it's actually the air temperature because sometimes it melts pretty quick. So it's not, you just try to literally load it. That's why I got a commercial ice machine just to load it down. I want to try to get in there as much as I possibly can.

And when you're like, so let's take, what was the last event you were at? uh canada okay so you're you're in you're at the canada event um this is the rbc so you're rbc uh talk to me a little bit about your routine those days leading up to the event okay i flew in on monday i worked out in knoxville worked out in the morning got up adam and i worked out like 6 a m popped on a plane like 11 got up there i think I think working out before flights is a great move. Yeah. But I got up, did like my version of yoga, which is not, it's like glorified stretching.

Okay. And, you know, cold shower went to bed. Nice. Tuesday is a practice round. I worked out in the afternoon. I actually worked out with a kettlebell juggler. What? It was incredible.

He's a kettlebell juggler that competes. I have a visual image of this. Imagine imagine a guy taking a 53-pound kettlebell and throwing it, you know, 10 feet above his head, flipping it three or four times and catching it with the opposite hand, swinging up under his hips, and doing the same thing over and over again. We didn't do any of that. We did a lot. It's fucking dangerous, too, by the other.

Oh, my gosh. But we did a lot of, like, kettlebell mobility. I do a lot of kettlebell, mace, Indian club stuff. with the on it guys in Austin and basically basically you know what I'm trying to learn from you guys you know how to optimize my performance both on and off the golf course same thing I mean guys that trains people all over the world in kettlebell and that's something that I like to train with a lot so I try to learn from it so that was a unique day so kettlebell on Tuesday yeah we do more upper body so I met with him Tuesday we did a bunch of we did like two hours of you know learn how to

use it for mobility, learn how you use it for strength. You know, it was interesting, the thing he said, the last thing he teaches someone how to do with the kettlebell is to swing, which is opposite. Most people think the first thing you think is swing, because kettlebell is technically meant for one hand. That's why the competitive kettlebells are, you can, it's awkward to put both hands on it. Oh, interesting. People don't normally think that.

Yeah, the first thing I learned for a kettlebell was a kettlebell swing. Yeah, you put it, you kind of tilt it, put it on it, like lean it forward a little bit, and then pop your hips that's what everyone learns yeah he rock my world he changed how i held it like and i feel like i have a pretty good knowledge of what and i felt like i knew nothing and i was blown away and my my front rack has in a week i feel like i could hold it forever because of what you learned this new grip not a little bit of a grip a little bit of like put my body in a situation where i could sit there and hold it for a real long time no that's not necessarily what you ask well include like a video of this in the show notes for those of you interested. Yeah, his name's Jammu. It was

unbelievable. He was fantastic. So that was a unique day. Okay, so you do that and then like you're playing a practice round later that day? Yeah, play practice. What's the mindset at a practice round? I always wonder this. Is it like just to kind of feel your swing, look at the golf course? Are you trying to score well? No, score is completely irrelevant. The guy's like, man, I shot 65 in the pro image. No one cares about that. Yeah. Nobody, like, is there even a mindset like, I left all my good shots out in the practice round. Never. I got just as many good shots, you know, I got the next day.

Like, I don't think about something like that. Yeah, that's an amateur mindset. Oh, 100%. Like, oh, man, you hit it good today. You're going to hit it bad tomorrow. It's like, no, man, I'm going to hit it better tomorrow. Yeah, I like that. And I actually did a practice thing last week.

We talked about it in a second as far as just a way to put yourself in a little bit more competitive mind frame when you're at home and kind of seeing the difference. So like a visualization or something? No, like everyone always compares himself to the same. second guy like man or the b player mentality that second guy man he always hits it good so you actually play the a player plus verse the b player and play the score out and see what the difference is and i had a really really nice day a shot 62 and my b player was four shots better from the same t shot sorry play this out for me i don't so you play your t shot yeah and whatever shot you hit

to hit the greening regulation so par three you'd hit two t shots par four four you hit two second shots and you play from wherever your drive is so you play both balls but you if you're second so your B player hits it closer you play it out so when you say B player you're talking about yourself myself okay cool so my second ball so I hit the fairway and I hit my first shot and say I hit 10 feet my next shot hit it to six feet you you play both balls out and you compare the scores and on a good day I still beat myself by four and when you're saying the beat you're the B player you're picking the worst T shot? No, you play one ball off the T

and then you play two balls in and whatever would approach to the green. But there's also the flip side of that you play, then you could go to the opposite and play the worst. And you have to have some time and some space because it takes a really long time. But man, that'll take some discipline, like big time.

So what it does is it teaches you that there's no B player. It also teaches like, man, maybe sometimes going into the green am I not being aggressive enough? Am I being poor shot selector? Like, am I continuing? continually short, am I continually long? Interesting.

Especially in times, like, I'm having the greatest results lately, but I feel like I'm playing well. So, trying to, man, am I, when I get in a scoring position, am I, what am I doing that I need to be better at? Do I need to be better with my wedges? Do I need to be better? I just found that, especially with my wedge game, I never flew the ball far enough into the green,

so I was consistently short. So in that situation, that next guy, I mean, I was hitting it tight every single hole because I mean, I knew. Because you're reacting to the first shot. So trying to make that second guy come first. Got it. And as the round goes on, I was progressively getting closer and closer and closer. Just kind of learned behavior.

Okay, so let's go back. So you do practice rounds on Tuesday. Obviously, you've got a great mindset. Every good shot I hit today is going to be even better tomorrow. Absolutely. Go into Wednesday. Wednesday is a pro am. Yeah, it's the biggest charitable aspect of the tournament.

and trying to get just that's the closest you're going to see the course to tournament play and that's true in some sense not but you don't over read into it no and a lot of it depends on the weather because the tournament courses that we play from Monday to Sunday are they're not even recognizable the same yeah I bet just in terms of like the firmness the to people for people people listening to this who don't really follow golf, like the one thing that's fascinating about golf and especially golf courses is how dramatically a course can change based on what the Greenskeepers choose to do to it. And so literally, you could play the same golf course as Scott, but if it's in tournament conditions for the PGA tour versus whatever the hell you were playing,

it could be a 20-shot difference in terms of how hard the course is. The amount of people that I've played with at home and said, like, you know, I played this past week and I've had a couple like nice rounds and you know like man you know you seem like you're playing great like what what's happening when you're on tour it's like it's a lot harder first of all yeah you can't make double bogeys out here like there's no rough like the courses are 6800 yards like you'll hit a bad shot to make a bogey but I mean I'm hitting wedge on every hole that's not reality yeah and you know there's not one t-shot that I stand up over and like there's you know six inch rough over here there's out of bounds over there and there's a lake, and there's just the, it's just hard to compare.

Tiger Woods is that great quote. There was some U.S. Open that was, like, ridiculously high scoring. And he was like, all you two handicaps at home laughing at us, you would not break 90 on this golf course. They wouldn't break 100. Yeah. Maybe it was 100. Yeah.

I played Shinnock last year, and I went 100. That, they lost that. I mean, that was a shame. Because on Tuesday, that was the first time of my career that I got done playing my practice round and I wanted to go play the course again in a practice round I liked it so much and then I was the first off on Thursday and we played four holes and my group was 13 over par because you knew the green it was over we'd all putted it off the green once in four holes wow I mean that's tough it's glass just you don't play stuff like that very often yeah okay

so uh Wednesday proam now are you shifting anything about your diet or anything like that like Do you drink alcohol? I do. Not very much during a tournament hardly at all. If I do, it'll be clear. What is that when you mean clear? You'll have vodka. Mostly tequila.

Oh, interesting. I did the RP thing, and they were big on whatever your body metabolizes the most. But once the tournament starts, I rarely drink it all. So that's interesting. So you did a test that shows that you met up. No, that's not a test. That's just proven fact. Oh, okay, okay.

So the pure the tequila, your body metabolizes it better. your body would tell us is tequila better than other alcohols. Yes. That's a fact of all right. I'm glad I learned that. I don't know if we want to necessarily think that's where we go. So I just drink a lot more tequila. I told that to one guy.

I was like, so I just drink tequila all the time and I'm going to be good. I was like, no, I did not say that. I did not say that. But I think that, you know. I think you got a tequila sponsorship coming your way. I don't know. We just got to the point where guys can promote alcohol. So I don't know if that's necessarily what we're going for.

But I think that, you know, definitely off weeks, you know, but tournament weeks way more down in. So you won't have drinks on Monday or Tuesday even? No, Monday, Tuesday, for sure. But as the tournament goes on. It's okay on Monday, Tuesday. Yeah, and that's a rarity, too. Definitely tournament weeks. I try to shy away.

Now, I've heard that there's some guys on tour sort of party animals are currently in the week. I have no recollection of that. I mean, my family travels with me. So you're not in that scene. And especially with them trying to, this is the last year of them traveling. I try to just do my thing, get in the gym, get on the course, do my work, and then go be a dad and be a husband and be with them as much as I possibly can. You know, whether that's having a glass and why my wife at the end of the night,

whether having dinner with my family, I just, the idea that is so foreign to me, I don't necessarily know how to relate to that. Like, hey, let's go out. It's like, where? Like, what does that mean? Bedtime's not 9 o'clock. So you, so then Thursday comes around and you're in the tournament. Now, have you just played in so many tournaments where you don't even really feel anything on the first hole?

No, I mean, there's still some jitters and things, just almost like... Does it catch you off guard? Like, you know, I find sometimes, like, I'll talk to athletes and they'll say, you know, sometimes I'm totally relaxed and sometimes I feel nerves and, like, it almost seems a little random. It definitely seems random, but for me, I've been way more nervous on a Friday afternoon when I'm hitting it everywhere trying to make the cut than Sunday in contention. Because Sunday in contention, like, you're doing something well. You're succeeding at something.

So it's more automatic. When I'm, like, hitting it in the crowd every hole and just hoping a guy like I don't kill somebody when I just ship a driver over in the woods, I just think that there's way more nerves that come with that. than, let's say, you know, coming down the stretch on the Sunday afternoon. And by the way, I think that the golf casters or like the golf coverage people, they need to do a better job highlighting all the people that are right on the cut line because I can tell that, like, that's really intense, right? And by the way, who's, like, watching on a Friday afternoon,

you don't really care who the leader is, but you want to see some drama. Like this past evening you see Patrick Reed, he's on 18. He's like got to get up and down to make a boge or a double bogey to make the cut. He breaks his club in half. You know, there's some real drama there. Yeah, people, the Friday afternoon is definitely you can see some things. You don't normally see a golf club that motions can run hot. You see a guy three put at the last hole, you know, missed a cut by shot or, you know, guy hits a poor shot.

Or something like chips in and has a massive celebration. Especially a guy that's, you know. Like on the bubble. You know, not played well and then, you know, holes out or makes a long putt. You definitely see the range of emotions you can come across on a Friday afternoon at a tournament are definitely vast. Now, are you doing anything like from a meditation standpoint, visualization standpoint? A little bit of visualization, especially when I'm practicing, like we do a bunch of T-shots

and understand like when we're out there, like, man, this is what we said. So you'll visualize the shot during a practice round? And the range. And, you know, my caddy would be like, all right, this is the, like, for example, Colonial, the fifth hole is a really tough driving hole. And so if I'm not driving it well, we'll always try to recreate that one hole because I'm a fader. And so that means my ball goes left to right for the non-golf people.

and if I do anything and I'm not I try to recreate that hole in my mind because like you got to sack up and hit a good one there and you'll use that visualization for other shots or yeah I will and that's kind of a methodology mentality as far as how we go about it but there's certain holes out there that definitely stick out of my mind as far as where t shots are most important and that's definitely one of them that's really interesting and that's my hole that I think about especially when I'm not driving well like all right let's try to recreate that whether that's using trees whether that's using different angles on the range like all right there's our corner of the fairway we're going to cut it off of there and this is our fairway we got laying it in if i always felt like if i could drive it in that fairway i could drive it in any fair way i like that and have you ever tried to play the

whole course in your mind i've done that a time or two you know where you kind of go you get the yard book out all right one's the driver you're probably going to have like a wedge and we're going to hit a especially with trackman now you can do that a lot more you know the all right we need to hit it at 128 yards and you kind of play it from there but a lot of it that's just kind of game planning and what puts myself in the position to hit what I feel is the most comfortable you'll see guys play holes a ton of different ways but that's just them trying to maximize where they feel like they can perform and also what they're comfortable over for sure especially you see guys you know whether it's or conservative, it's more of a comfortability.

Like, what do I feel like I can go make the best swing right now in this circumstance? And whether that's, I want to swing really hard and hit a driver, or I want to, you know, dink it out there with an iron and, you know, whatever kind of goes on there between. And will you ever, like, try to hit the reset button mentally, too, when you're on the golf course? Like, let's say you're... Every single shot.

Okay. Every single shot. So talk about that. I mean, the one shot cannot. affect the next just like and continuing down through the round what if your last shot's a great one though that's not going to make you feel good i mean you're going to reset you definitely feel good but like just because i hit a good one on last one doesn't give me the the right not to go through my routine not to pick a shot so your point is like make sure to keep going through that routine every time yeah try to recreate

good habits and you know just because you you know had a PR deadlift doesn't mean the very next time you're just going to start there yeah you're going to reset you're going to warm up you're going to get your body ready you're not going to just going to go to that you know start ripping 405 off the ground you know straight out you know just like I'm not going to go you know pull off the shot I did right before that you know from the day before so the process starts from the beginning and you know you kind of carry that through and let's let's pretend you've now made the cut it's Friday afternoon you're looking at into the weekend like do you feel like celebratory at all at that moment or you're just kind of

like now I've got more work to do here you got more work to do I mean work starts early in the week and it ends on Sunday afternoon I mean obviously that you guys miss cuts guys make cuts but you know that's the moment to you put yourself in that position for the back now on Sunday and that's what we play for that's the opportunity like you want to feel that you know playing on a Sunday morning completely out of contention, and there's obviously a lot of different things with the FedEx Cup and every point matters and kind of everything goes along with that. But being out there and knowing that, you know, I'm going to go out there and post a number. Like, that's what guys, you know, strive for. And being out there when that's not happening is not as enjoyable.

So if you're like thinking about your Sunday round, let's say you're in contention to win the tournament, right? the night before what kinds of things you're going to try to do just to go to bed and relax yeah i mean same thing that goes try to do the same thing always right the same mentality that they got me to that point it's not like oh i'm winning the term i'm going to change everything i do you know you will kind of play your day in reverse as far as when you want to start it so that means when i got to stop it the night before and we talked about it a little while ago as far as as especially days you know you're going to have like sleeping days especially when your schedule is like later on in the day how to make sure you don't get into that like negative response from like over sleep i don't know if that's

necessarily a term but that's what i refer it like where i mean i understand definitely what it's like to operate a sleep debt but i feel like sometimes they get to the point where my body like almost like i slept too long and totally you know i think a lot of people struggle with that especially like super late tea times like you go to bed like your normal time and like man I'm just going to crash you out next thing you know it's like 10 o'clock and you have slept till 10 o'clock in six months

and you don't know like what's going on here and you know well sleep consistency is a big thing that we focus on at whoop is this idea of like going to bed and waking up at the same time no doubt do you ever use the sleep coach for that absolutely especially when I'm home yeah and Monday through Wednesday

I operate that way better than Thursday through Sunday just because I don't have as much control. But once I find out my T-times, that's why I said I play my day in reverse. Yeah. And that's where, I guess, the sleep coach would come into play. I'm kind of my own sleep coach at that moment.

But Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, for sure. And, you know, the predictive analytics as far as when you need to go to bed, I got that thing that sends me in my text when I need to. Yeah, the push notification. Absolutely. That thing is a great sense of accountability, especially when you had the days that maybe I pushed it a little bit too hard. You know, maybe I stayed up a little bit too late the night before, you know, especially off weeks.

You get the kids, you know, we just moved into a new house and, you know, everything that kind of comes along with that. My recovery after moving, it was like I was on a bender. Right. And just anyone that's ever moved, just don't even look at your recovery score because the amount of stress that comes from that is not great. But just everything kind of comes along with that. Have you noticed the strain of different rounds is different? Or is it always fairly comparable? Like I would think that, you know, being contention on a Sunday has a higher strain

than a practice round on Wednesday. I would definitely say, like, the neural fatigue that comes from that, maybe. Like, you definitely get done. And my wife laughs at me, especially after, like, an afternoon or evening round when we go into coming off of, you know, they pick me up and we're going to go to dinner. It's like my ability to make rational decisions is not happening because I've just. your brain spent it's done so i definitely in that moment and it's also after those rounds especially in contention it's really difficult to go to bed right because you're just replaying

all the decisions that well maybe do i do this or maybe i need to do this more and that's the tough like i've won three times and in my career and the worst night sleeps i've ever had on tour those three nights after I won. After you won. Just because I was replaying everything. I mean, something you dream about your whole entire life. I would think if you lose by a shot, but like the fact that you won, it's fascinating that you would be playing it all over.

No, it's just you're trying to. Because maybe it was just so, you were so in the moment. I was so into it, man. Yeah, that's interesting. It's like a replay. You're trying to go back and like, man, I want to just, I want to feel what this is like and make sure that, you know, for whatever reason. And I've had nights where, you know, I've lost her.

by one and I was fine. I knew I put everything out there. And you may replay a shout or two, but just going into, you set out to accomplish this goal of winning tournaments and playing PGA tour golf and it actually happens. And it's like, holy cow, like the dream come true kind of moment. Do you do anything around like gratefulness or gratitude? Oh, absolutely. Every day, especially to go through the experience I did off the course and just everything with my body in my life you know the 74s and 75s aren't great but they're a little bit easier to deal with and the you know 64s and 65s are more celebrated and that's cool man you got a good outlook on life i feel like you're in a good place you got to man i think that you know the game is giving me more

than i ever deserve and i'm trying to be a good steward of it i did a really poor job of that for a really long time and hopefully i can continue to do that for a long time on tour and you know try to be able to share of the story is, you know, create opportunities for people not to make the same mistakes that I did. What's your message to someone who's listening to this and, like, they're going through something in their life, or they have been for a while, they're just like they're a little out of shape, maybe they feel run down a lot? What are some of the steps that they can take to bounce back?

Make one decision that's better for you a little bit more often. And whether that's go to bed earlier, whether that's wake up, wake up, wake, up earlier in the day, put yourself in a position to where you are a priority. And we all have spots where we make sacrifices for everyone else around us. But the moment that we put ourselves in the forefront and where you're the focus, whether it's mind, body, spirit, whatever, where that is at the focal point. And I think a lot of people get caught up in the rat race as far as life of, you know, success, achievement. And all those things are great. But man, if you are not in that spot where you can actually go

I mean that's where people just get so run down and you only get one chance of this man you get one body you get one life and you need to be an unbelievable steward of that every single day that doesn't mean you can't have fun that doesn't mean you can't have a good time but that all comes with respect to

you're putting yourself in the spot where you can go and enjoy that I heard this amazing Confucius quote like a week ago that's like every man has two lives and the second one begins when he realizes he only has one. That's, I mean, that could not be more appropriate to everything that we just said. And I don't think that I ever felt like I had this lease on life that I could just do whatever I wanted.

But I kind of operated with that, maybe subconsciously. And now that when you're, I'm my blood drawn 41 times in six months. Yeah, that's a wake-up call. That's a wake-up call. and not a lot of people get second chances from that, and I was very fortunate to get one and had the people to come around me and help make those decisions to where I could learn

and implement any opportunity I could to get better on the course, off the course, like decisions, habits, whatever. And I'm trying to do everything I possibly can to put that out there to where someone can not have to go through the same thing that I did. the amount of Instagram and social media and texts and emails and stuff

that hey man I stopped smoking I went to the gym for the first time of five years I saw your thing on the golf channel and yeah you're an inspiration and I don't think I ever set out for that but I think to the point of if that makes a difference

then it's 100% worth it totally and trying to get a little bit better trying to do more of this kind of stuff where you can kind of get out there and just kind of tell a story of a guy that didn't do a very good job for a real long time and it's trying to make up for it on the back end.

We get a lot of cool messages at Whoop just from people who, like, you know, their life's been changed one way or another from a product. And it's always good, I think, for us to, like, share that internally because it keeps everyone here super motivated and energized because it shows that you're building a product that's got a big impact. Same way, you know, you're living a life that's got a big impact.

I mean, Woop has been a vital part, both on and off the course for me. and a good way to stay accountable because I know that not only am I seeing the data but you guys and the team that you guys have surrounded like, hey, what's kind of going on here? We've kind of seen some trends and you know you're going to kind of build a team around you

to kind of help make yourself continually put yourself in that environment to push yourself in the right direction and to, you know, wake up better the next day than you were the day before and do the things you need to do to make that happen. No, it's cool. And do you think we're going to keep growing

on the PGA tour. Like, I've noticed more people wearing it. We're trending in the right direction. I think you get over the mental aspect of where you can kind of pick and choose which analytics you choose to look at. You know, the guy that's got a three-shot lead and he wakes up on Sunday morning, he's got 38% recovery. He's like, oh, no.

They're coming. But I think you kind of learned to take everything with a grand assault. Obviously, that is important and that needs to be accounted for. But there are days that I've had great recoveries that I didn't feel like I felt like when I've had poor recoveries and learning how to manage that and you know ultimately I know how I feel and I know the things I did to make myself feel that way what good or bad or indifferent and that all comes with experience but who has been an incredible teacher as far as how to manage that as well yeah I like to see you can only really manage what you measure right and so you can

choose what to measure and you can choose what to pay attention to but if you want to really manage it you need to have that information in front of you so that is a baseline I think is why you know even in professional golf like a lot of guys should should be looking at it but you know more broadly anyone should just be trying to understand how do I sleep how do I recover what kind of stress am I putting on my body because all those things can help influence you no doubt we we went over like I feel like I have a pretty adept knowledge as far as ways to optimize my sleep and after 10 minutes with Chris and I realized I know nothing. The more time you spend learning about sleep,

the less you realize you knew about it. Yes. And, you know, just a couple of questions. You know, I was like, I've never thought about that. And, you know, so coming up with just different ways as far as to implement some of the strategies that she had in mind was just mind-blowing. She's like, man, I know nothing.

And the better I get at putting myself in a room with people that know a lot more than I do is the better I'm going to be. Yeah. And I'm going to learn just a little bit from each one of those opportunities. And you guys have been great as far as willing to share that. I'm very grateful. Well, we're pumped to have you on WOOP, and thanks for coming on the WOOP podcast. And the whole team's rooting for you and your next event.

Yeah, man. I hope to see you guys out on tour sometime, and hopefully we'll get some more guys wearing the watch that doesn't tell time. Yeah, right. We're in the watch that doesn't tell time. And, yeah, and we'll tee it up some time, too. That'll be fun. That would be great, man. Thank you guys for all your support.

It's been a pleasure. If you're not already a WOOP member, you can join our community for as low as $30 to begin. We provide you with 24-7 access to your biometric data, as well as analytics across strain, sleep, recovery, heart rate variability, and more. The membership comes with a free Woopstrap 3.0. We offer 6, 12, and 18-month memberships. The more you sign up for, the more you save. if you enter the code Will Ahmed at checkout, that's W-I-L-L-A-H-M-E-D, will give you $30 off a membership, just for listening to this podcast. For our European customers, the code is Will Ahmed E-U, and that'll give you 30 euros off when you join.

And for our current members, you can upgrade to the Woop Strap 3.0 and get access to all the new Woop Live features by following the link in your Woop app. If you're out of contract, you'll literally get the 3.0 for free when you commit to another six months. Check out whoop.com slash the locker for show notes and more, including links to relevant topics from this conversation and others. Make sure to subscribe, rate, and review the Whoop podcast on iTunes, Google, Spotify, or wherever you like to listen. We'd love to hear your feedback. You can find me online at Will Ahmed. I try to respond to everyone who reaches out. and you can also follow at Whoop on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.

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