What Pros Do (and You Shouldn’t) Before a Golf Trip

All right, welcome back to the golf ball podcast. My name is Cordy Walker. I'm your host for this conversation. This is fun. We had Nico Darius back on. He's just really interesting guys got some good insights into tour life and practice and he is a true golf sicko. So we had a wide-ranging conversation. We we we had the intention of talking about golf trips here today, like how to prep for him, how to think about him, a lot of fun stuff.

But we ended up covering everything from like the open gear that's happening this week talked about like should you, what should you buy from a club and like what can you put in your bag or where responsibly? It was just a great chat. Anyways, enjoy this with nicogolfblueprint.com is where you can find him. He's always a good fall on Instagram too. You can see what's up to there. Let's get into it. Well, let's get into it. It's open week. Yeah, we got here.

We are, man. Open week it is, I think a lot of ways to go with this. And I think it's going to segue probably into what we're going to talk about for, for the people who are not playing in the open but are going to go on a golf trip this summer, like open week. And it seems like every year that the draw is, is kind of the conversation topic. I know amongst, you know, my, my guys and my players and my friends, it's it's very much the elephant in the room. Which side of the drawer are you

on? I know data golf does some amazing work every year. And I just like, by the way, shout out to those guys, like love, love reading their stuff as they go on how much the wave matters. I mean, it's a crazy thing in, you know, Northern Ireland golf, Scottish golf, whatever it is where, you know, you go off at 7:00 AM, let's say whatever time it is versus 3:00 PM there. And it could be a completely different golf course. So I know that that's going to be a big one coming into the

week. What do you guys got? Like the guys you have, are they training differently? Do you have them playing weird games of like hitting different shots like? Dude, it's an interesting one. What do you got? I think it ties into the amateur side too. Like, do you go into it with your game, right. Do you go into it and say, I'm going to play my game? And this is open information. Like Cam, Cam Smith when he won and I think it was Saint Andrews. Was it?

Yeah, Saint Andrews. He talked about that. He like really talked about that openly where he was like, dude, I hit my normal ball flight and I just flushed it all week. Whereas some guys try to flight it. They might try to change their ball flight. You know, I know you did the the pod recently about which way, you know, one way or two ways you should work it. This is such a cool topic for that. Like we know with the wind, the ball's going to curve like it's

it's going to inevitably happen. But do you bring your game or do you try to say, hey, I'm going to, you know, hit low flighters all day. I'm going to hit stingers off the tee. Or if you're a regular PGA Tour pro who's just trying to nuke the ball as high as they can every day, do you bring that and just say, all right, I'm going to hit the number. I think the wind is going to do X. Well, I think about you going to get Tiger just hitting. Did he hit no drivers that one?

Week I think I yeah I want to say hit no drivers that. Right. So obviously adapted to like the environment was like, hey, I'm going to do something different. Has the game changed since then? Where like just everybody just doesn't do that anymore, right? I would imagine, I mean, I don't think anyone's not going to hit a driver right this week. Like that would be a a weird anomaly. Maybe someone does it, you know, but there's always like cool

gear things. I know there's a lot of guys who cover gear leading up to the open because it's so fascinating. Like some guys will put in a 2 iron, they'll take out a 5 wood, some guys will add a wedge. Like that's where I think the club equipment set up side of the science is so cool. Like there's OEM's doing it, there's individual players doing it, and it's so unique to what you think you need for your game, which I think is the

coolest thing. Like there's probably No2 bags alike out there on the range this week. Yeah. Does Scotty drop the seven wood? Yeah, right. That's a great question. Like although on some holes like a 7 wood might be beneficial because he could hit it into the wind and theoretically like stop it on a par 3 or he could hit it downwind on a par 5, get there in 2. Does he put a 2? I don't, you know, I mean, those are the things that I'd be

fascinated to see. I know there's a couple really good guys who covered the gear, especially in Europe. By the way, like I know SMS on Tour is like a great resource for European Tour gear. Like great follow on Insta shameless plug to them. Yeah. So I mean, are you a fan? What's your opinion? Do you want your guys to change ball flights? And like, we're gonna work on hitting flighted shots? We're gonna like work on that 2 iron Stinger off the tee.

Like are are you a fan? So I'll use a completely different one because obviously this is going into the week like, you know, for their sake, we'll leave this out. Let's talk about we went to live Mexico. That's just like a like polar opposite side of the country. Let's talk about that one because it also presented a huge dilemma with the altitude. So a lot of guys were tinkering

with their ball. I know pretty much every one of our guys was tinkering with driver settings and we we were pretty strongly advising against any ball changes. It's so hard for like week to week to be like, oh, I'm just going to put in a, you know, one of the 19 different Titleist Pro V1 variations that I play. It's guys are pretty dialed with their ball. And I was, I'm not really vocal, truthfully. I'm more of like a sounding board for these guys like, Hey, what do you think about this?

And I'll kind of let them lead themselves to the answer. But on the ball one, I consulted a buddy, Chris Brody, and I was like, Hey, what do you think? And it was kind of the same, But we're like, dude, one week like not worth changing it. I think a lot of guys just gave themselves a little more loft, honestly, on their driver at elevation. That's a whole different entity versus let's go to Northern Ireland where I think everyone wants to hit, you know, the

missile. So you tell me, right? Like this is one of those guy to guy, I think everyone's going to be tinkering a little bit. I don't know necessarily what the whole field is doing, but yeah, boots on the ground say there's a lot of tinkering on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. Are you changing up practice games?

You having guys practice differently? At all. Yeah, it's the chipping. OK, so here's a weird one. Chipping in Scotland. I actually learned this from a friend who was a Scottish golfer, and he was talking about it when I went over there and it basically changed everything. He goes, oh, you hit an into the wind chip downwind. I was like, wait, what do you mean? Like what is that concept? He's like, dude, wind is very different chipping here.

He goes depending on which way because we think about grain a lot in Florida, in the states even like grains everything. But if you think about it, you hit a chest high chip and you're trying to hit it 30 yards into the wind. That's very different than downwind. So those are huge variances of learning and that just takes

experience, right? Like I think the Open is so cool because older guys can contend because they can get themselves around the golf course and they know how to, you know, they know how to golf their ball. And I think the chipping aspect is a really cool one to see. Are you going to see guys putt? Because you're going to see tons of dudes putting from let's say 60 yards where normally like you would never chip that or you'd never putt that on the PGA Tour from 60 yards.

But there some of those greens are so spicy. It's a better play. So those are the kinds of decision making conversations that guys will be playing this week on the range on their practice rounds, hitting tons of chips and tons of putts. Those fifty 50s where they leave indecision, right? Those are the hardest calls because it's easy when the ball's sitting up in the rough. There's there's, there's one play, right? You slide it under it, you pop it up.

But if it's all of a sudden I could hit this five different ways. Now it's like, oh man, then did I make the right call, right? You make a birdie. Of course you made the right call. You're a genius. But you know, you dump 1 to 12 feet, miss the putt, and now you're like, oh man, those are the fun ones. Yeah, I mean also conversation, I mean it goes back to stock shot kind of it's the same thing

with the chipping. Do you stick with your stock chip and you just do what you do or do you try to learn kind of adapt with a new, do you just stick with it? I mean, those are tough decisions to make. Not even mentioning the pressure that comes along with it. That obviously changes the whole situation too. So I mean a lot to figure out. Imagine some long practice rounds trying trying to get. Around there, yeah. I mean, the practice round thing, this goes to amateur

golf. I know you've played in tournaments. I played in one relatively recently. Like the practice round thing for amateurs. Like, please don't watch the way pros are going about it and like, try to copy that. Like, chances are you have one practice round at this golf of course you've never seen before. I know we're gonna talk about travel golf and things you've never seen, but yeah, please do not hit 67 chips around every green.

It's just they're doing it for a reason because they know where the pins are. They have historical missed data. There's entire companies who literally just plot guys projected shot dispersion patterns before they get there, and these are looking at that. I'm standing over A7 iron from, you know, 190 yards and just like praying I hit the center of the face. We are not the same. I don't know about that. Probably users don't know as well.

What's the shot pattern? Thing OK, so there's yeah so this is really cool that there are guys on tour who are data guys like mega super smart dudes that will take players they work for individual players and they sell them basically there's a million different business strategies. They're not going to get into that. But let's assume I'm a player that that signs up for this service. They'll give me all the data on the whole historically and then they'll tell me a lot of times

my own patterns. So for example, I'm a right-handed player. I tend to miss right I should start my T-ball right here and 20% of my balls are going to end up in the right header. But I'm OK with that because there's out of bounds left. So they'll literally overlay it looks like a like a launch monitor data graph of all of their projected shots with aiming patterns on where they should be. And then they'll show them up and down percentages all the way around the greens.

So say for example, let's just use a like visualizing your head, a very basic circular green with a bunker on the left, bunker on the right, pin in the middle. Well, it doesn't really matter which bunker you hit it in. You're probably going to get it up and down 40% of the time from either one. But say that pin is short, right? And you miss it in the right bunker, you're now short sighted. They'll show you all of that data.

So these guys are going into practice rounds going OK Round one, it's likely going to be a pin in this this area. I know that I can miss it in the left bunker. I can't miss it in the right bunker. That's again, a very, very niche level of tour golf. But yeah, there's some really cool companies out there that that work for players. Interesting, is that like every

pro pretty much has? That no, I mean, some, some of our guys use it, some of our guys don't a lot of the caddies use it. That's that's I would say the biggest value is within the caddy, because you, as the caddy is able to kind of guide your player and say, all right, man, like we're going to start our fade, you know, here and we're going to end it there. You're never telling the player don't miss it here. That's not true.

There are terrible caddies, I'm sure on tour that have very short careers that tell them, don't hit it here. But for the most part, you're, you're guiding your players saying, all right, let's make sure we, we start that ball here and end it here. So the caddies know that they the caddies, by the way, on tour work so hard. I think people, you know, sometimes don't give them the proper do of how much they're doing behind the scenes.

Like they're not just carrying the bag, they're not giving them water. They're A-Team. They're they're an amazing, amazing team, especially in major championships. Is that one of the things you think that most people don't realize, that they're looking at all that down and like thinking about? That good caddies are, Yeah. Yeah, good, good caddies are. And. And ultimately, at the end of the day, like the players should be freed up to play the game,

right? It's not their job to be wondering about the 12 percentage different points if I hit it here or there. At the end of the day, like, I don't know many good golfers on tour that are playing the percentages. Now, there's a few that are amazing at it, but for the most part, you want to be locked into a zone. All the sports psychologists talk about that, where you're reacting, you're playing the

sport. You're not like God, I hope I don't hit it over there, which I'm far too familiar with for the record of my own game. Yeah, I'm good at that. Don't go over. There, I can do that. I'll hit it over there. Watch me. Well, it is. Yeah. This is the best week of the year. I got my little. I got a little trophy here. Remnet from. I went to 2016. Nice. You have the Phil. True. Amazing. Which Phil Henrik at True. It's just like the coolest

thing. Ever. What about SO? It's one of the best weeks of the year. Doesn't get much better. Coffee golf is, I mean, it's as good as it gets. Like we have a couple guys who work with who play Europe and like I love waking up and just watching a little coffee golf and you know, being able to check in with the boys. It's this, this, I'm with you. I think this is probably my

favorite major of the year. If I was going to, you know, as like a pure golf fan, man, like, and I love Sky Sports by the way, like the commentary is electric. Like those guys are great. They're always just like they they cut it loose. I don't know if they have like less restrictions, but if you could like log into a Sky Sports broadcast, like they they kind of cut it loose on there. They they definitely let their opinions be known all.

Right. So you want to talk a little bit about getting ready for golf? Yes, which is yes, as Greer talking about Northern Ireland, one of the questions that I get a ton, I'm sure you get this too. Like I am going on a golf trip in let's just say a month and I'm so excited. I'm going with my buddies. What should I do to prepare? So this is I think one of the most hotly contested things that my my golf blueprint partner and I discuss of how to prepare, what you should do.

And I think just kind of talking through it with you as as best practices for your buddy's annual golf trip, like, OK, you've been on a million golf trips. Like what? What did you do before you went on them? If anything? You know where you're going, you know where you're playing. Start from there. This is a great question. I think one of the first mistakes that I've often made is just not hitting. Any golf balls? Prior to going and expecting that, you know, I took a month

off, I'll be fine. So I would start with like maybe trying to hit a golf. Ball before you go. Is that, is that a good suggestion? Like, that's kind of kind of a wild thought. Who would have thought? Maybe mix in a driving range session before you go. And just by the way, when you do that, that's not the time to try out that new move you saw on YouTube. Just try to hit the center of the face. That's probably probably the time. But yeah, that's number one.

So fire away. I mean, what did you do? Speed training, like heavy speed training sessions beforehand, we just want to go as fast as possible when we get there, so we're going. I love that for you. Can we hit a personal best? No, I'm just kidding. Your first team hands are shaking. This is the one. Yeah, yeah, I know.

Honestly, I I have a super fun band and trip that I've been doing every December here last couple years and it's always like it's in December. So for me, that's in Minnesota. So we shut down a little bit, play a lot of golf by December. So it's like, all right, I gotta get back to be able to play golf. And so it's just kind of like 1 scheduling some time in the in the simulator, just like, OK, I'm gonna, I'm gonna hit some balls here.

I'm gonna hit some balls here, gonna hit some balls here and just make sure that I can swing a Golf Club. The body's not gonna fall apart. I think that's like what you forget. Dude, I don't know if you know this. I mean, you're, you're the, you're the guy out there playing all the time. We watch the stories, we see it, but like, yeah, you take you take a few weeks off from golf and you try to play two days in

a row. Golf shape's a real thing, Like I I think as I've I've unfortunately become an adult and like have I have the fakest real job. I always laugh about that. I play golf. I understand, but like you know, I went from playing 350 rounds a year to like 275 rounds a year, which, like I hear you in the comments, right, Oh, poor guy, But it is less and like you do get out of golf shape. It's very much a thing. Interesting. One of the old school coaches

that I work with a ton. And when guys will come to him, he'll look at their hands. Because your hands tell the story of a golfer and your calluses will tell him basically how many balls a day you're hitting. Because you'll tell him that you work hard, but he looks at your hands and your hands don't lie. So, you know, you got some, some bare real you're looking at. Everyone's looking at their hands now, like, oh man. Man, these these hands have been on a computer. Way too much.

These hands are corporate weapons over here. Just type it away. But that's one of the that's one of the things that that they'll talk about. So you can't fake golf shape. Yeah. I mean, just swinging a club every day, right. Getting, you know, putting that in your house. Those are the little kinds of things. I think some do's on my end. Definitely do Go to the range, schedule it out. Right. You're a dad, guys. Listen to this podcast. Probably have jobs like plan it out.

Hey, I'm gonna go to the range twice a week for the month leading up to it. You don't need to reinvent the wheel when you're there. You you don't need to try, you know, to buy a new driver. Definitely. Let's go into the don't. This is a do and a don't like don't buy new equipment for this trip. And I will say that because here's why I do it every single freaking time. Like if I am going on a trip, I'm like, dude, I'm getting that new driver.

I'm getting my new wedges. But here's here's why it's a do and here's why it's a don't like do it because you love doing it and you're just going to get you to go practice like don't buy it thinking that it's going to solve whatever problem that you have. Like be realistic with your expectations of like, hey, this new driver's probably not going to cure my 12° path from the, you know, outside in slice, whatever. Like that's where I always like

temper your expectations. But absolutely, if it's going to get you excited, like I am a gear sicko, buy that new putter man go. That's going to get you excited to the golf course. So that's like a a do and a don't. I mean, what? What do you got? You're going to love this. My first like qualifier of the year, it was on a Monday I think. And so on Saturday I decided that I was going to crank my driver down a little bit because

it helped me fade the ball more. And I think I hit product 5 balls with it. And I was like, yeah, this is we're good to go. So guess who double crossed it left? You know, on the 2nd and the 6th and you know the 9th hole? This guy. I like the like. This is literally like Golfers Anonymous. I got one for you. I haven't played a qualifier in three years. This is this is how real this is. I'm not playing a golf qualifier in anything in three years.

I get an e-mail from the Florida State Golf Association that says congratulations on signing up for this qualifier. And I looked at my e-mail like, this has to be like a spam, Like I didn't sign up for this. Like I would never like come on. And I get a text about 20 seconds later from my buddy goes to get an e-mail and I go, yeah, he goes, I signed you up for a qualifier. We're playing a four ball together and I lose it. He goes, I paid for your registration. We're doing this.

Mind you, the day before I go to I text my club builder. I haven't build me a mini driver. I've never used it. Guess who teed it up with that in the tournament? This guy we shopper. We didn't qualify, but I had a ton of fun. So so I always say to this people like I am the cautionary tale, like do as I say, not not clearly as I'm doing. My body is a is not a temple. It's an amusement park in my own golf game. Yeah, yeah.

Well, I mean, it kind of brings up an interesting thing like I depends on the attitude you want to bring into like a trip. Or something like Yeah, yeah. Are we tinkering? Are we going with a new swing thought and you're just going to go let it RIP and have fun? Or will that you know when you shoot more than you think you should shoot, will that piss you off? Like what? Dude, what is the vibe of your buddies trip?

Like are you going with seven of your buddies and you guys are going to have a hoot, you're going to laugh, you're going to have beers and like you know, you're going to play best ball and have a ton of fun? Or are you going with like three other sickos and you guys just like only care about beating each other? That's the conversation. And I will always say like die on this hill, like read the

room. Do not be the guy grinding for your score if like the other, every dudes in your group are just like having fun and you know, like you don't want to be the dude ruining the vibe of the trip. If you guys are all having fun and you're all having a good time and you're having the best day ever, like I bet everyone would be stoked for you. But on the flip side, like say they're all having fun and you're hitting it terribly. Like don't, don't be that guy. Like read the room, have fun

with your buddies. At the end of the day, this is like the philosophical question that that I always ask myself, like, is shooting my lowest score worth like ruining the day for everyone else? And like, maybe depending on where you're at, like it's probably not one or the other, but it's that kind of read the room vibe where, hey, man, we're all having a blast here. We're all here. We paid to be here. We're excited to be here. I don't get to see my friends that often on trips like this.

You know what, going into it, there should be some designated rounds. We're like, yeah, we're having a competition. We're going to play a Ryder Cup. And then everyone's kind of on the same page. To me it gets weird when like. One person is grinding and three dudes are just like hitting the booze really hard. It's like a weird weird. Yeah, no, you got to have a competition. You got it. You got to be playing something otherwise, yeah, it just turns

into, you know, a disaster. Like play a Ryder Cup, play a a scramble, a best ball, like 18 holes of individual stroke play like that's, you know, that's for the sickos. Like I love that. But yeah, play something fun all. Right.

I want to go back to the practice side of like get getting ready for this, because I think a lot of people will go hit balls maybe and that's good like golf shape, you know, hitting a golf ball, useful things. But they start doing that and then they just kind of like start tweaking like I'm hitting a big hook. We're going to try to fix this and and whatnot. So like that's where I think this time should be skill based

games. Like we did an awesome video where you put together like a practice plan is, is mainly skill based, right? So like working in wedge distances and shot shape control and like all this kind of stuff. It's like you should, you shouldn't be like do do some of that stuff like work on your skills with what you have. Like that's going to help you actually like have more fun because you have worked on some of this. Stuff dude 100% no matter what this is.

This is like the book of Genesis, the 1st sentence. I would say in practice we're always trying to get a better swing. Like it doesn't matter who you are. Everyone wants to have a better and more consistent swing. Now that we all can like table set and agree with that, Yeah, like you're going to have way more fun. Say you play a hook like getting on the T and being like, dude, I know this ball is going to come back. I know I can start it outright,

sling it and come back. Golf gets really not fun, especially at a golf course you've never been to where you don't know where it's gone. Like the two way miss. It keeps me up at night like I think everyone out there at home is like, you know, has the hand jitters of standing on the box and being like, man, I don't know where this is going to go or one of my favorite golf goals of 2025. I do have to shout out my friend Will Knights. His goal was to commit to the double cross.

So when he gets on the box, like he's fully committing to the double cross, which has been a great goal for him this year. Don't be that guy either. Knowing which way the ball is going to go is so much more fun. Creating some skill based games where you can visualize, you know, hey, I got water right. I got a little bit more fairway left. It doesn't matter what shot ship you hit. I always say this like I don't care.

I don't care personally if you hit it one way, if you hit it both ways, but you've got to know where the ball is going to start. That's like professional G1 O1. And then this ties into another thing like you play a lot of indoor SIM golf. Do you play the golf courses that you are going to travel to or not? This has been like weirdly contested in our in in like our inner golf blueprint membership group where they have a lot of SIM access. A lot of guys play on Sims

everyday. So I, I don't know the answer to this. Like you tell me you're the SIM guy. Why would you not? Because some guys say they want to see it for the first time. Some guys enjoy going there. And just like, it's like watching a movie for the first time to them is how one of them described it. Versus like, you read about the plot before you go. They just get to, like, experience it more as a experience than like, hey, I'm trying to shoot my lowest score at, you know, whatever golf

course. Yeah, those. I don't know. No, I disagree. Yeah, no, that, that was the discourse. It was so. It was so interesting. So I'd never thought of it. I mean, in person is so different than on a SIM. Is it even the same? The same thing? Yeah. No, go ahead, RIP away. Why not? Yeah, see it. Have an idea? That's that's my opinion. I would I would love I would love to do that. Yeah, you just get get going.

Yeah, The the. Architectural guys were like, no, I want to experience it for the first time. Like I don't want to see it. I just want to have it like revealed to me. And I was like, Dang, that's like a pretty thought provoking concept of these guys also are not necessarily playing for score. It's not like their thing. Their side of the house is more of the enjoyment of golf, architecture, the day with their friends versus, oh, hey, I want to go shoot my best score I can

today. But yeah, as a SIM guy, I know you play a lot of SIM Goal. Yeah, Excuse me, That's like an interesting you play it before you go, you have an idea. Yeah, I would say why not? Yeah, but that would be my honestly, what I would do is I would do all my practice like there's. So I use the sky track a lot. So you can just drop yourself. Yeah, if you want to practice, you can just go drop yourself. Very cool from wherever.

And it's the best. It's really fun to just like, hit wedge shots on a golf course. Yeah, it's a very cool. Thinking of this I would love I need to pick your brain on this. I practiced so much this winter on wedges, the Richard Bland like wedge drill I heard from Claude. The best? I worked on it at a time. I got OK with it. I my scores like tracked him. I got better this summer. Terrible. I have no idea where the golf balls go with wedge distance control.

It like didn't transfer like that practice. I wonder why. I don't know just the the weirdest thing ever. I was like, I'm going to work on this all winter. OK. Two questions. Were you doing speed training when you did it in the winter? Yes, that's the biggest difference that like that's my hypothesis and then you've probably done less now. Yeah. So, so think about speed training and wedges.

They're like whenever any of our guys are doing speed training, it's like the first thing it's like if this then that like your wedge distances and your wedge feels will be completely different doing it versus not doing it. So that makes total sense. Interesting. Yeah, because like every time I get on the course, wedges just got like 5 to 10 yards. Yeah, it's a completely

different. It's dude, I always say this like wedge numbers are sacred and they're the most important thing for like pro guys to keep feels consistent. No different than if you gain weight, lose weight, you're playing, you have the flu. Like guys that are playing sick at altitude, like that's one of those things that, you know, a lot of our guys do wedge tests every Monday when they get to a

location. That's like a really easy way to do it for that exact reason of it can never really get like off the guardrails. You know, I know my 56° this week is going 107 yards. Well, if last week it went 111, like what is the difference? Like am I sick? Am I, you know, am I hitting it further? Am I tired, whatever that might be. So yeah, good question. Like super pumped you asked that. And yeah, that would be my, my. As soon as you said I was like, I bet it was speed training

like, and that's not bad, right? Like speed training again, like you will always hear me say is amazing. Like you want to hit it further but as soon as you stop or do less of it, your numbers are going to change and they will equalize eventually. Equal out.

Dang, all right, well, I guess I got to get back to that. Playing that game more. I've honestly probably practiced. I have stopped practicing the wedge. Distance dude. Blandy's wedge game that that Claude always talks about is so hard, and when you hear how good those guys are at it, it's honestly a little depressing. Like you see your score, this guy, this guy a real person. My playing is an AI here.

There's no way I got a question for you on On the Golf Trip related because because I think this is another one. I have two questions for you #1 we had this like very spicy, contentious debate. So don't let me forget about golf bags. But what do you buy when you go to play courses? Like do you buy anything? What's what's on your like purchase list? Yeah, I think, well, I mean, as I've gotten older, I've enjoyed like buying stuff more. Like now it's essential.

And what I just realized actually this is this weekend I was having a chat about this. I was like digging through my bag trying to find a ball mark. And I was like, I keep all my cool ball marks that I've bought in a vase like on my desk at home and I like never use it because I don't want to lose. It yes, yes, like. You're an idiot. Just use the. Eventually it's just going to rot away, so like, why don't you just use it? The car guys that never drive their car, Yeah, the same type

of thing. I'm with you. I get you. It's a recent revelation that I've had is so I'm going to use, I'm going to go find my cool ball marks, which I've probably lost anyways by trying not to lose them. So no, I, yeah, I think it's essentially you got to bring home something. So that's why I like this is my office at my office and then my Home Office. So like I, I just put stuff everywhere. I love that. Like this was, this is from 2016.

I actually, I did use the crap out of this for a few years. Well, like this is great. I can, yeah, you know, have have stuff to to remember. Yeah, I I'm all for. It yeah, you gotta you gotta get stuff. My, my partner Kev, he buys flags that's like his thing, his office behind like his, his murals, all the flags of places that he's played. And he'll bring flags from his club too. If he, if they're doing like a, a member exchange somewhere, like he'll bring one from his

club. I think that's a really cool thing. I know guys will buy shirts, guys will buy hats all like the basic merch stuff. One thing that I've done that I really, really love, and boy is it a terrible way out of my budget thing is buying like needlepoint belts at like sick clubs. My credit card gets assaulted when I walk in there and I see like a smathers bell. I'm like, I need that one. I do like I, I am not a wealthy enough man to have that kind of

hobby. Let me tell you, I should have started with ball markers should have done that. Like what a what a terrible thing that I've given myself the opportunity, but I I justify it when I wear them, you know, once a year. Well. This is a good question. You OK, So you go, you go to this. This is a good debate. I don't know if it is a debate, but you go to a nice club, right? You're invited and you do you buy like a driver head. Cover and then you literally

segued you segued into my point. OK, so in delay in our tournament the other day and we were having this like it was us and the guys we were playing with. They were like cool older guys as well. And we were having this like 2 hole conversation and I swear it was like cart split like they were 100% team. You can, you know, do it. And the other it was like it was it was a hot back and forth take of like, are you a guest? And the one guy said he was like, Hey, man, like I caddy at

the club. Is that acceptable percent? If you are a caddy of that club, you work there? Like hell yeah. Like when I caddied at a club in Scottsdale, like I loved repping the merch. I was proud of being a caddy there, like caddy 100%. But if you're like a one time guest, you walk in the pro shop. Yeah, I don't think I think the comment we got to let the comment section like run on this one because I man, like these guys were entrenched on either side of it.

Like one of them was like, you can rock that bag 100%. And the other one was like, if you wear, if you, if you, you walk up to a range and you have a bag not from a club you remember at, and I talked to you about it. He's like, I hate you. Like I don't want to talk to you anymore. The other guy was like, no, it's cool. I played there. What's the difference between a head cover? What's the difference between a belt, a shirt, a hat? That's. These are good.

These are good questions. Well, I guess what, what is your golf bag? Do you have a head? What do you have? Any head covers? Yeah. So, so I will say I learned this. This is this is on the other end of OK. This is on the other end of spectrum and I was very fortunate to work with incredibly successful client who's a member of the first time I met him, we were at a dinner or group dinner and we're chatting about the clubs he was a member at.

And finally one of my tour pros looks at me and he goes enough he goes. He's a member of every club. Ask him where he's not a member of and then it'll be that. But it was, it was fascinating because I learned a lot from him. So when I went to his house, he had five bags of identical sets lined up with five different of the nicest clubs in America. I will just start. They're one through 5 and they're lined up at his house in Palm Beach. And I said, why do you have 5

sets of clubs? He said because I don't want to show anyone up at the club that I'm at of another bag. So he brings an entire outfit head to toe of the club that he's at as a respect thing, which I thought was one of the coolest things in the world. So I'm very proud of the clubs that I'm at. When I'm there, I try to wear the club apparel of the place that I'm at. That's that's like a cool thing that I learned from him.

I do not have 5 bags. I'm not a member of five clubs, but I'll wear wear a shirt or a hat of the club like my parents are at a club in Jupiter. I always try to wear a hat when I'm there or something like that. So that's the other end of the spectrum of like what an amazing successful businessman where he's like, no, I want, I want to be proud of the club that I'm a member of. And he also has unlimited money. So he has five identical sets, which is sick. What about your belts?

Where? Oh, I'm rocking, I'm rocking belts from everywhere. So so yeah, my, my, I'm not, I'm not that guy. I was giving you like the the other end of the spectrum. No, I typically I typically wear some sort of a golf blueprint hat and and you know, a shirt or belt wherever it's from. The other weird thing is like, as as pros every day I laugh about this, like the guys I play with, like dress really poorly because we see each other every

day. So like the outfits like aren't very good and like, no one really like thinks about it. It's like going to work every day with your colleagues versus if like you're playing on Saturday with your buddies, like you got a fresh outfit. I remember when I lived in Scottsdale, like I always had the Jordans. I always had like a, you know, fresh golf shirt. Now half the time it's like, Oh yeah, that blue one's clean. Like I'll wear that one, you know, whatever. So you. You.

What is your line? What do you do? You have a line in the sand. Will you put any head cover? Yeah, so I've, I have two clubs that I'm a member of that I love more than life itself. And I have those two as my head covers. Those are those are my places. And then really cool member of ours made us a golf blueprint putter cover. And I have that. So that's that's my bag. I have a driver cover from the

place. I have a three wood cover from the other club and then a golf blueprint putter cover. My line in the sand. Personally, if you're going to make me like if you're going to make me choose a side, I hate choosing sides. As always, I live in the Gray area. I'm gonna say no bag if you're not a member like that's that's I think everything else is in play. It's kind of weird if you have like all your head covers from that place. I don't know, that's kind of weird.

But like that's my line. I'm gonna say no, no bag. No bag is my my stance. Where are you at? Give me. I I would go no bag. I do have AI think I've got a sheep branch, cool head cover, cool. So I feel like that that's a, that's a public. Covers, head covers. If you've been like my best friend in Jupe, he has like the classic mid am bag. He's like I love. Shout out to Frank. You're an idiot. I love you. He has a pine valley. No, he's he has an Augusta head cover.

A pine valley 3 pine valley, 3 wood. He has a Saint Andrews, a hybrid, and I think he has a Cypress putter cover. And guess what? He's played them all and he's played them all like multiple times. Like you go off King. Like hell yeah, yeah. That's good. OK, all right. We're so we're, we're good with that. Yeah, I, I think, I think you

can do a head cover now. And then I, I honestly had some other head covers on too until I saw some chatter and then I was like, oh, maybe, maybe I shouldn't. So then I kind of swapped back to just some normal stuff and then or else I. Don't know I'm dying. I'm gonna die on the hill of a bag. The bag is too much like. Yeah, the bag is probably too much. Yeah, bag with your name on it.

The other weird thing is in in like tube mini tour golf, this is like this is like this is for like the deep hits like OK.

I like this I'm I am interested. This is the deep hits like if you carry a staff bag to like a club and you're not a tour pro immediately right to jail like like like straight to jail like that is that is you are going like people are making comments like if you do not play golf for a living, for the love of God, like do not have a staff bag like the assistant pro 1 is kind of the weird like you're a club pro. Like that's a weird one too. Like you're a Titleist staffer,

You're a Callaway staffer. You technically can, but you don't have to. We'll leave that one where it is. We'll put that in the box, but God, if you are not a tour pro, you roll up with a staff bag tough. When are people using staff bags? Just like psychopaths walk up to like ranges with staff bags and like, what are you doing that in the name on the bag? The name on the bag is like, I

wouldn't say it's controversial. I think it's more of a Country Club thing, but there's there's also like a subculture of the mini tour players that like don't put their names on their bag because they don't have status. They just have like blank bags. That's like kind of a like not respectful thing, but they're like they're not being posers. Let's just say that they're like, I'm not I don't have a contract. I'm not being paid to use this equipment. I just have a blank bag.

Got it. Staff bags you. Can't You can't put your name on a bag until you're on the Corn Ferry tour. I have a name on my bag, so you know, it's yeah, like that. I think it's also like a Country Club thing where like people at country clubs have names on their bags. I have no issue with that. Like that's not mine. It's the mini tour guys that are not being paid to use equipment where they're not going to like advertise a company essentially that they're not being paid for.

I totally understand that. Yeah, put your name on your bag. I'm not like, I don't care about that. But yeah, the staff bag, like I am like team freaking mini tour. Like do not use a staff bag if you're not being paid to use that thing. I love this is like a golf trip like podcast that we have just turned into like a subreddit of just like. Yeah, I mean, I got a lot of questions here. I just wanna make sure that none of us are making fools. Yeah, and now we're all like, Oh

my God, what do I say? There's so many rules. Meanwhile, I'm like the antithesis of what? I saw a comment the other day, this guy was talking about tattoos at a golf course and he's like, no tattoos at my golf course. I'm like, dude, I gotta sleep. Like, does that mean I'm not welcome there? I I hate all, I hate the gatekeeping. Like I despise that unless you bring a staff bag that I'm like

bringing my pitchfork as well. Speaking of sleeves hit me. My summer has been dominated by wearing sleeves every time I go play. It's the best. The greatest thing? Dude, if you're not wearing sun sleeves in in the year of our or 2025, like where are you? What are you doing, if there's any? Why does only it's just is it there's only one tour pro that that does half of live? Dude half live wears them. Now if you if probably not tuned in to live all that often I hear

you. But if you watch live like there are tons of dudes on live on Asian Tour, DP World that wear on not a lot of tour guys. I don't know why. Same as sunglasses which is fascinating. Like, not a lot of guys wear sunglasses when they play. And I understand they think it has something to do with the green reading. They've done a lot of research on that. I mean, I wear them when I play every day. But yeah, not a lot of guys wear sunglasses either. It's like a very, very common

thing. I have a. Well, that's just kind of something that I don't heard growing up, but does it actually matter? Because I wear sunglasses sometimes don't, sometimes I. Don't. Yeah, I don't know. You'd have to ask an ophthalmologist on that one. I know TPI has done, like a ton of research. I'll check in with Dave and see what he says. I believe that it slightly changes pudding and it would make sense. Dude, I don't know.

Again, all I know is that from observing it, not a lot of guys do it. I do it, but I don't know what their deal is. Yeah, that's. All right, you check in with Dave and report. I will. I will have an answer for us on why guys aren't wearing sunglasses. Well, like baseball, everyone wears sunglasses. That's like tons of other sports, but tennis they don't. So it's an interesting like sport to sport thing on why some people do and some people don't. Yep.

All right. Next time we have you on, we're gonna do sunglasses and ships. Yeah. Dave on to do that. He'd be the best for that. Seriously, that's great. He'd be the best for that. All right, what are you? So we had golf shirt, we talked about some of the practice. We talked about kind of getting ready for it. You know, the the most annoying thing that I'm really bad at is is well, like just in general, regardless of trip or not, it's just like warm up.

I don't know how you. Like, dude, yeah. Land on this like I I have I have posted for years like there's they did a study as like you're three times less likely to get hurt and like all this stuff if you do a 15 minute warm up, which is pretty, pretty reasonable, but I still skip it most of the time because I'm dumb I guess, but that is something that is really hard to do on a guy like guys trip. It's like, hey guys, I'm gonna go warm up here for just. A second. Hey guys.

You guys enjoy your mimosa. I'm gonna go. I am religious about warming up like in terms of like my body mostly just because I've seen the guys do it every day. It's very normalized. I will also take the flip side of this. I was playing a work around in at a muni at a muni in Utah with like 3 non pros and I was doing like a full Jupiter tour warm up and like the people in the restaurant were just staring at me and I was like oh I am a

we're not in Kansas anymore. Like, I'm on the first tee at a muni me in Salt Lake City and like, I am like, you know, moving and cranking and like, my playing partners are just like, what the hell is this guy? Like, what are you doing? I, I, I, I'm big on like 15 minutes of like movement, then I don't need to hit a ton of balls. But like, yeah, like I, I am. Wait, what's the Jupiter tour? Warm. Everyone has bands, you know, I got bands. I got like activations.

You got to activate the glutes. I'm, I'm doing lunges like you just it's, it's a 15 minute, you know, kind of little thing that everyone, everyone takes that part seriously. I will say, like pros take that warm up seriously. You don't see it because a lot of times we're doing it in the gym before they get to the driving range. Like that's best case scenario. But that's not me. I just go to the golf course and and warm up.

Yeah, I mean, I think, I think having a 15 minute total warm up, like not like 15 minutes of body and like I need 15 minutes to go to the first tee is what I should say. So that might be like 10 minutes of like dynamic stuff and then 5 minutes of hitting balls. I don't need an hour. Nobody has an hour. Like that's not dude, you're not getting to the tee an hour early. Like this is psychopath move. That's that's insane. Yeah, you definitely get the get the looks when you're doing the

bands. I think I'm, I, I've got some bands in my bag which I'm doing, doing some of that. And I found, I found a friend the other day, there you go, who was also doing a band, some band stuff to warm up. And we, you know, we had a nice, we had a nice little moment there as we were, as we're the only guys there. But I mean it, it's hard to do like genuinely like, I probably don't do it half the time. You need to which as I'm as I'm going this to make sure because I watched it the other day.

You are a part of the 76% of Americans who forgot to stretch before they before they did physical activity from heavyweights. Don't be don't be a part of that. There we go. You need to stretch part. Of the 70. 6% mix in like a yeah, like I always say to people like a, a 15 minute routine is going to do dividends versus just like getting on the first tee and trying to swing a driver as hard as you can. Hey, like everyone has 15 minutes.

I don't have 30 minutes most of the time like I'm coming from a meeting or I'm, you know, whatever it is, but like spend 15 minutes and get loose. I think your buddies on day three of the golf trip will probably join you. I know those. Those can be some long nights and quick naps, let's just say. That's true dude, this is fun. We we travelled a gamut of topics here today. I love. This this this was this was I'm.

Very excited to see the comments section take on like bags, apparel, you know, you, you name it. Like I'm, I'm curious to see where the Internet lies on this. You know, like where? I'm I'm out on out on bags questionable, unlike if my driver head cover is from a club that I played at once. OK, I'm, I'm questionable on that. I did that for a while and then I changed because I felt questionable. But yeah, putter head, cover play, whatever kind of God.

I'm excited, I'm pumped. I mean, I'm on the other end of the spectrum. Do what you want. Unless it's a staff bag then I hate you. We will come for you in the comments. I'm bringing a staff bag to Florida next time I come. Wait till Claude sees her staff bag. What tour do you play on? Yeah, yeah, many of them, many of the tours. Shout out, Claude, One of my favorite questions. He says about, like, guys who play Professional Golf. He goes, what tour do you play

on? And then it gets real quiet. That's a tough scene. I'm looking for one. Yeah. You guys got new local tours. So funny. The AM Circle, Yeah, playing the Golf Channel AM. Terrifying attempts. Hell yeah. Love that. Yeah. All right, next time, shoes and sunglasses. Love that we will, we will deep dive it. This is the best. Thanks dude, talk soon.