The guys from paying. They've kind of showed me how much the equipment matters. I just love that I can hit any shot.
I kind of want we're gonna be able to tell some fun stories about what goes on here to help golfers play better golf.
Welcome back to the Ping Proving Grounds Podcast. I'm Shane Bacon. That is Marty Jerts, and we are in the Ping Tour truck.
Marty. Tony Fena is joining us. How about that?
Welcome up?
Thank you guys, Thanks for having me.
Tony.
I want to get into a lot of stuff with you because I'm very interested in your life and I feel like I've heard Adjason stories about the Tony Finow experience, but I don't know if I've ever really like solidified how it all went down. You turned pro at seventeen, yes, and you, I mean you turned pro because you had this opportunity to make a lot of money in Vegas. Were you playing competitive golf? Like, how did that whole thing go down?
Yeah?
I mean I was playing competitive golf, but I wasn't playing professional golf. You know, I was playing junior golf. I was seventeen years old. Basically, what happened was I had an opportunity to play in this ultimate game they called it, which was like a high stakes game.
How'd you get in? How'd you get invited?
Yeah?
I got invited by someone in Utah reached out to my dad. My brother and I were I would say popular golf figures and just in Utah, being standout golfers in Utah. But you know, someone had reached out and said that they would fund us playing in that tournament. You know, I think it was like fifty thousand dollars, so just to get in, and he was interested in funding. Both my brother and I had to play in the tournament.
And if you get to the final twelve guys, then you have to make a choice at that time if you wanted to win the two million dollars which is at the end of the tunnel, if you won the whole thing.
So my dad pitched it to my brother and I.
I didn't know how I felt about it, but my dad was like, well, we're gonna do it, so so yeah, exactly. So we entered the tournament and lo and behold, I was one of the final twelve guys. I won my first two matches pretty convincingly, and so then I was I had a one to twelfth chance, if you will, to win two million dollars, which at that time, this is in two thousand and seven. You know, we're playing for two million dollars now, but this is I mean
almost talking twenty years ago. I mean the season was winning, yeah, exactly, you know, so obviously a lot of money. I didn't come from money. And so basically when we were faced with that choice, I had already verbally committed to play at BYU, played college golf at BYU, so my dreams and everything were to play golf. But I knew I wasn't ready to play professional golf, you know, I wanted to.
But anyways, we had a meeting with my parents, you know, my seven siblings and myself, and because this is a big choice, you know, a lot of my family sacrificed a lot for me, and my parents definitely, but they basically were like, what do you want to do? And I was like, well, I'm going to college, you know, and that's how I feel about it. And again my parents were like, yeah, nice, trive, but you're not You're actually gonna turn pro and you're gonna try and win two million dollars.
So that's that's pretty much how it happened. And I ended up playing in the event.
And the cool thing about that was, I, you know, I made friends with some guys that are still on tour. Scott Percy won. I played in a group with Kevin Strulman. Spencer Levine was also in the field of the final twelve. I'm missing somebody else that's a prominent figure out here.
But anyways, I made some friends there. But after that I was on my way, you know, And it's been a heck of a journey being seventeen years old playing for you know, yeah, playing for two million dollars is one thing, and then my life, you know, I had to mature fast as a seventeen year old. But that's how, that's how, that's the story of me turning pro.
When when you were when you get to twelve and you're having these as a seventeen year old, you're having these like pretty intense conversation with your family. I could only imagine what was the level of pressure you were feeling, knowing that if I can go on and win this thing, it's going to change my entire family's life forever. I mean, I'm assuming that had to have weighed heavy on the shoulder.
Yeah, no doubt, Yeah, no doubt. You know, I think there's definitely some pressure there. I look back now, and but it's all grooved me to be the person and player that I am today. You know, again, coming from very little as far as financial status, that was an opportunity to to kind of take our family out of the out of the hole and move forward in life. But all those experience, of all those experiences early in my career just molded me into maturing and being the person and player that I am.
Today, Tony.
What else was there between that event and getting to the tour that that we didn't see on Netflix?
Yeah?
Because I don't know about you, Shane. I love watching yeah your story on Netflix. What else was in there? Man? I know we played in some of the same mini tours for a while, senior name around Arizona Golf, a lot of Monday qualifiers, the Big break. What was kind of what else was between there on that journey?
Yeah?
I mean all of that, you know, but basically six years of mini tour life and mini tour golf, you know, and and in those six years, I got married and had two kids in that in that timeframe. So a lot happened in my personal life, a lot happened in my professional life. You know, I was trying to every year I went to qualifying school and field. You know, I went through qualifying school six years in a row and never got through second stage. You know, I would
get through first and not get through second. I wouldn't even get through first one of the years I would get through first again not get through second. So yeah, but you know, in twenty thirteen, I finally got through qualifying school and and I'm asked all the time, like, what's your greatest accomplishment in golf? You know, I get the ass all that all the time now having won you know, PGA Tour events and done some pretty cool things.
And I would say, in twenty thirteen, getting past second stage, I knew that there was light at the end of the tunnel because I was like, now I'm going to have a chance to actually do something with my career, you know, like playing miniature golf is not a glamorous like PGA tour life. You know, it's like sleeping in your car.
Man. You guys have heard it.
And I've done all of it, right, staying at super suspect hotels, sometimes just staying like I played Canadian Tour in twenty thirteen before you know, Fall came around and played Q school and I had some friends. I mean we would stay three, four of us in one room, you know of you know Fort Knox one year, you know, me and my buddy stayed in our car, right, So all of those stories are in those six years are what I went through, you know, and I was doing that with a wife and two kids, so you know,
obviously the pressure at that time was pretty extreme. But you know, before I married my wife, I basically told her, I was like, look like, I'm riding this thing to the will's fall off. Funny, there ain't nothing there ain't nothing else that I know.
How to do.
This is my craft.
This is it right here.
So if I'm the one that you want to be with, just know that, you know, this is the this is what we're doing. So I obviously I have an amazing wife, and you guys saw that on Netflix Full Swing.
You know, she's unbelievable.
So she's been super supportive and I wouldn't have been able to do it without her, you know, just the support that she's had back at home taking care of the kids while I'm trying to pursue my career.
But that's what those six years were like. You know, it's.
Extremely hard, and I look back now and it's like, again, that's what made me. You know, like I've gone through a lot on the PGA tour and I feel like I've proved myself, continued to prove myself. But the hardest times of my career were to get here. Yeah, you know, it wasn't to learn how to win. It wasn't all these other stuff, because this is different type of pressure that we're dealing with. To me, that was like real life pressure. I've got kids to take take care of.
I got a wife to take care of. So it's a whole different type of pressure that I'm dealing with now than I was during those six years of just trying to be somebody.
Yeah, Tony, where was that second stage?
What court?
And how close were you that year?
Yeah?
That plantation Preserve is in Fort Lauderdale. Oh yeah, I can't forget my wife. Yeah, my wife reminds me that all the time, Like I forget everything. It's like, well, you always remember your golf stuff. It's true, but yeah, Plantation Preserve. I was in by a couple of shots going to the final round, and I knew, you know, I end up shooting sixty nine in the final round, and I ended up getting in I think by whatever it was five. You know, I was comfortably I was
company into me. I might have got in by even more than that, but I was comfortably in. So it was a great It was a great feeling finally to be able to break through after just heartache and disappointment of not feeling like, you know, I was living up to the level that I should be playing playing to. But it also just tells you how hard it is
to make it to the PGA Tour. I think there's a lot of great players that just haven't taken advantage of the opportunity and that unfortunately aren't playing the PGA tool But they're amazing golfers. Yeah, but you know, you have I think a small window of opportunity got to jump through, and luckily for me, I was able to do it finally help my seventh try Tony.
When you when you go back to those years, those six seven years you're playing Gayway Tour and you know, you get married, you have kids, You're you're telling your wife like, this is what I'm doing. Were there are moments and I can imagine there were probably a lot of moments where you were doubting is this what I'm
going to do for a living? Did you have a close call where you said, Okay, at the end of twenty eleven or twenty ten, if it doesn't, if I don't make enough money, or if I don't get through this, maybe I will try to pursue something else. Was there ever a moment where you were thinking that or was it always I can improve, I can get better? And when where was that moment where you saw that sign like, oh okay, I'm close.
Yeah, that's a great question. You know, I think I can't say that I ever consider doing anything else. Okay, I can say for certain again, you know, I I from the time I was eight years old pretty much on, I wanted to be a professional golfer, and I and my whole life was wrapped around this idea that I would and belief that I could do it, and the work ethic was there to back it up. So I still had enough results in junior golf. I feel like
and in the professional game. You know, I was still winning many two events to tell myself that I could do it. So I think it was still more when not if, you know, in those situations. And so luckily for me, I think I was just stubborn enough. The way I see it, I was just stubborn enough to think that I was going to be a great player in this game, you know, and whether people were telling me that or not. And obviously when you're seventeen years
old like me in Utah. First of all, Utah is not a place that you're going to say one of the best players of the world is going to come out of this, right right, yeah, right's that's the first thing. And the second thing is not a seven especially not a seventeen year old.
You know.
We've heard some of the stories of kids that I've turned pro too young, But to me, it was like it was more that I had the stubbornness and belief that I could do it, you know, and that was more important to me than what anybody else could tell me at that time. So I honestly can say there wasn't too much doubt. It was most of it. It was hard, but there was nothing else I would rather do than pursue this golf thing and try and make it and trying to be the best golf player that
I could be. So again, I was fortunate that I have a wife that supports me and through those trials, and we're on this side of it now and we have a whole different set of trials. But that part of the life was something that's pretty crazy. And I would say, to answer your the other part of your question, I think you know, in twenty eighteen, it's hard for me to get away from this. Anytime you talk about my ankle, everybody's like, I feel like I came on
the scene mostly because of my ankle. But in twenty eighteen my first Masters. I watched my first Masters in nineteen ninety seven, and I finally qualified for my first Masters in two thousand and seven. Seventeen twenty years later, I'm finally playing in the Masters of a tournament that I had watched my whole life, couldn't wait to play in it. On the eve of that it happens to
my ankle. I end up finishing in the top ten, and so I think like my whole mindset shifted to, like, if I could do that in a major championship on a bad wheel and just have the fortitude to finish and play that well. Like that was like a turning point in my career. I had already won on the tour, had some nice results and stuff, but I think that truly changed. And then I got picked to play on
the Ryder Cup team that year. I had a winning record in the Ryder Cup overseas, Like there were just things that stacked up, I think to allow me to believe that I could take my game continue to progress. So I would say that that was like a true turning point in my life.
When people if you don't play well on a Sunday at a major, or let's say you struggle at a Ryder Cup or a big event, right and you hear critics or people that talk about golf like us say maybe the pressure got to them. Do you laugh at that? Considering the amount of pressure you had felt as you built up to this point, knowing that you know you're supporting a family, and ye're supporting your family and your parents at times like I can only imagine the level
of pressure you felt in twenty eleven. In twenty ten, when nobody knew who Tony Finaw was it probably? You know, it can only matter. It overshadows everything we're.
Feel hundred percent. Life is all about perspective and the perspective that I have. You know, most people have a perspective of you from a bird's eye view, you know, when they come down to the ground and actually understand what the journey that you've actually been through and been on, then it's not really about what people are saying up here, you know, It's just mostly about for me, how do I get better and move forward again?
That that's it.
I go back to that stubbornness and that belief. I have to be stubborn enough to just think that I can do great things, you know, whether it's going to happen or not. I think there is that level of stubbornness and belief. But yeah, you know, critics are part of sports, right, there's no way around it. And we live in an era, social media era that is crazy. Everybody has an opinion about you. But that's what I signed up for. I wanted to be under the spotlight.
I wanted lights on me. I wanted people to see my game. I want people to watch me, and if people aren't criticizing what I'm doing, then I'm not doing really anything right. So I understand that, and you know, it just comes with the territory, you know. And I think some people look at it a negative thing. To me, it's all positive because it's like I'm doing something with my life. You know, I didn't come from a lot.
A lot of times I look at myself, I shouldn't really be here right like, there's so many obstacles I had to will come just to be in this place right now. So there's not a lot that can be said about me to me that will really rattle me, just because of what I've been through. And another big part of that also is my dad. My dad was my biggest critic. He was my coach for the first, you know, a dozen years of my of my career
and of my life. And there's not a lot that he hasn't said to me that somebody else can't say that'll that'll make me feel a certain way about myself. So he pushed me to a level to get to get me to where I am. And and so you know, you tried, you try to stay bulletproof through it all as much as you can. We're only human. You know, I'm gonna hear things that I don't want to hear about myself. I'm sure I'm gonna hear things people tell
me of things that I can and can't do. But it's part of It's part of this experience that I'm having through through the journey, and it all just is part of the part of the process of being better and becoming better.
Tony, do you ever do you ever get burnt out? Like, oh man played a lot of golf, or things aren't going my game, good game, I need to take some time off. To me on the outside looking in, it looks like you're kind of like John Rahm, like after he won the Master's like I'll be chipping and putting tomorrow afternoon. And when your kid when you went in Mexico, we saw that video you out caddying with your kids. After that, I mean, are you just is it just golf junkie or do you ever get burnt out and
need to take a little breather? No.
I love playing golf.
I enjoy playing it, and now that my son plays, it's hard for me to not be on a golf course, you know. And and I'll even say to myself. You know, I'm not going to play this fall, you know, and then you know my wife, and my wife is just like rolling her like here we go again, right.
You know.
I enjoy playing. I enjoy the competition. I enjoy the juices and what it brings out of me. And so just for that purpose, and I fell in love with this game playing in the evening with my dad and my brother with nobody else around. So I just I think I truly respect the game for what it is, you know, and the challenge that it is, and the beauty that it presents at every turn, and the tragedies that it's you know, presents. I truly enjoy the game. I can't say I'm like a swing junkie, you know.
I'm studying golf swings and I know that much about the history of the game. But I truly love playing golf, you know, like I enjoy it. I'll take some time off when I feel like I do need to, and sometimes it's more of a mental, mental thing than physical.
You know.
It's not like I'm tired physically. It's like I could use a few days off, you know, just to reset my mind. Because when you do it for a living. It's a whole different there's a whole different vibe that comes with it, you know, and if you don't have the same perspective that you've had since you were a kid of just trying to enjoy it. So sometimes you just have to take a few days off and recognize the blessing that it is to be playing the game, and then you get right back after it.
You talk about playing golf with your brother and with your dad growing up, and you say you love the game playing golf, I mean, you play competitive golf. You got fans out there, some say normal stuff, some say not so normal stuff. You have to deal with all of that. Is your happiness on the golf course now, playing with your son, is that when you're you know, ten out of ten in terms of loving the game.
Yeah, no doubt.
You know, my happiness of being with my family, no question, no matter what we're doing. But being on a golf course with my son is the greatest time. I think that's the coolest thing that he loves what I love authentically, you know, like he's been around the game since he was a right baby.
That's great. Pictures of him sitting on the range with me while I'm hitting in the mini tour events, right.
I mean, whether we're in Chicago, driving through Illinois, you know, a lot of these mini tours were playing, he would just be sitting right next to the golf balls while I'm grinding away. But he's been around the game his whole life, so he just organically.
I think all of our.
Our first heroes are our fathers if they're around. I was the same way, and so my oldest son is the same way. He grew up watching me do this golfing, and so organically he's now loves the game. He plays in tournaments and it's some of the greatest moments of my life just being out there playing with him. And it's almost like deja vuf I was with my dad and now you know, it's it's kind of like a full circle moment.
It's it's weird, by the way, I just want to say this, being a parent when you still feel young and then you have moments where you're like, I'm doing this, you recognize me, you know, and sometimes you're like, I'm not supposed to be this sole Like this kid's looking at me.
You know. It's just so.
Strange that it does actually happen like that, That happens quick to.
Are you more nervous if let's say you got a foot to win a tournament, or you're you're spectating your kid he's got a twelve footter to win the tournament.
Yeah, I'm a lot more nervous watching than I am playing. Yeah, you have you have more control over when you're playing. You don't have any control when you're watching. So I definitely felt that. I get asked that quite a bit when I'm out watching and and people ask me that, And there's no question, I'm way more nervous watching my son than I am playing.
Tony your fifty second on the PGA Tour this year. And driving distance, we all know your golf swinging. We all know it's pretty short. It's been built for efficiency. If you wanted to be number one and driving distance on the PGA Tour, could you be?
Yeah, I could be number one if I wanted to be My accuracy.
With that swing like its accuracy.
Yeah, my accuracy would go down quite a bit. But if I if I only had the goal of being number one and driving distance ID one hundred percent could be. But I'm more interested in scoring and and playing within myself than I am uh in driving, you know, driving the golf ball.
I'll let it. I'll let it go every now.
And again, But most of the time my swing is just more about efficiency than it is about power.
When did that switch? When did you realize that you needed to be more efficient with the golf swing. I mean, you're a big guy, you're a strong guy, you're tall, you can obviously get it way out, You've got long arms. Yeah, but I mean the golf swing a lot like gen Ram, who I know, you play a decent amount of golf with. There is efficiency built in back golf swing way more than everything else you'd want to maybe chase.
Yeah, no question. I found it out right after my first year on the PGA Tour. I got away with hitting it offline on the corn Ferry Tour and playing out of the right. You could play out of the rough on the corn for right. I learned real fast you can't play out of the rough and compete at a high level on the PGA Tour.
That was the difference.
Yeah, you know, you actually sometimes had to hack out and you can't hit the green right. So after the first year I could have been dead last in driving accuracy. I think I was either first or second in distance and almost dead last in accuracy. So my coach board Summers and I attacked that, and he was.
Straight up with me.
He said, look, if you don't learn how to drive the ball straight or tony, you're just not going to be a great player. You know you can't. You can only play so well from where you're playing from. You're playing as good as you can from the places you're playing from. And I and I grew up scrambling, you know, That's that was a good thing about hitting it offline, as I always hit off lines since I was a kid. I hit it far, but I hit it everywhere. So
I learned how to scramble. But I needed to hit it in the fairway to compete at a high level. So that's that's why. And it wasn't intentional that I short in my back swing. It was just I started to hit a little low fade the second year, the third year, and I ended up learning like, oh, I think I still hit it far enough and I don't have to worry about smashing it every hole, right, So my mindset started to change throughout the seasons on the
PGA tour and that's pretty much it. And now it's brought me to today where I just try to continue to learn and groove, groove my my action.
Marty, I know you're obsessed with like the golf swing and diving into golf. I know you're an athlete in your sports fan as well. When you want. When I watched Tony hit drives, it feels like Lebron level. You know, Lebron jumps near he's gonna lay it up and then he you know, finishes around the rim or like Judge, Yeah, Judge kind of makes It's a pretty good swing at a ball and all of a sudden it's in the upper deck totally. Just that like flick motion that Tony has.
The golf ball doesn't feel like it's going to go through twenty yet it's still obviously, I mean, it's still plenty far.
For PG standards.
It was fun a couple of years ago. You were having fun in the Utah cranking some up, you know, carrying.
Some about four hundred right, Yeah, that's right.
It's still in there.
Yeah, still there.
But it's a good example of there's that you know to to to play the type of golf which is your goal and you and Boyd worked on there's a sweet spot there, like you only need to hit it far enough and then it's about managing it and you guys really you know travel that journey really well. One of the things Tony you know from your stats, I don't even know if you know this or not, is that you are the best player in terms of like
proximity of the whole strokes game from the rough right. So, uh, you know you talked about growing, you know, kind of scrambling and scoring. What do you think gives you that advantage long arms? You think it's like your your swing plane, your speed. Do you think you read the lies? Well?
Yeah, I would say it's the last one.
I read the last well, I think, yeah, I know, I have not know exactly, but I have I have a good understanding. I think how the golf is going to come out just by looking at the lie and getting over it.
So I didn't know that stat.
I can't say it's super surprising though, again but mostly just because I grew up not hitting it straight, So I think I had to learn how to hit it out of rough. Not that it was pja too rough, but I did learn how to hit out of long grass and how to escape hit under trees and and work the ball and stuff like that. And I had to because I didn't hit it very straight. So but it's worked out to my advantage because now that I hit it straighter, I'm never concerned when I hit it
offline because I know how to recover. I've been doing that since I was a kid, right, So learning how to score, I would say, is the greatest skill in golf is is scoring. You know, having the ability to score. You know, a great swing is one thing, and a great putting stroke and all those things, but the ability to score is what the game is all about. You know, can you score when you're not playing well? And if you can, then you know, that's that's a good thing.
And I would say for the most part, I just learned how to score because of.
How I grew up playing the game.
I just learned how to smash it and find it and try and get it as close as I can, or never really any technical thoughts or anything. And now that I'm starting to learn and trying and starting to groove it, I'm starting to become a more complete player. And that's the great thing. I would say about golf in general, this is such a long journey of becoming a great player. You know, you can be your best in your twenties. Yeah, you can be your best in
your thirties. And guys have already shown us Stuart Sink, Lucas Glover, you can VJ Sing, you can be your best in your forties. So you don't know where on that thirty year path you're going to be your greatest. So to me, it's like, just try to keep grooving and keep getting better at what I'm good at, and then hopefully my peaks are really good. And to me, I feel like I've you know, I hit a peak last year where I won like four times in a year, and I think I'm starting to find my groove At
this age in my career. I've learned a lot about myself and about my game, and and I think that my peak is in front of me more so than I feel like some of the greats of our game it's behind them, you know.
I think for me it's actually forward. Because of the.
Journey that I've been on and all of the you know, heartaches of just getting to the tour, I feel like my best golf is in front of me.
You mentioned Boyd. I mean, you worked with them for a long time as your swing coach, but he feels like way more than a swing coach. What is that relationship like, not just with Boyd, but with the entire Summersed family.
Yeah, it kind of took me by storm. I hired Boyd and he was just, you know, just barely Yeah, well he was. He was barely even coaching for like a year and then. But we've become great friends. He's one of my closest friends. We basically call each other family now. And I've kind of taken his kids under my wing. We played a lot of rounds together with Preston and Grace and camp great kids, and they've done the same thing with my son in return, which is
kind of a cool thing. But to see their success, and Boyd's been a great coach, He's been a great mentor. I've I've never really had a short game guy. I don't have one guy for different parts of my game.
It's just Boyd.
Yeah, And that's worked for me. You know, for other guys, you know, they'd like other things. And that's again things that I've just learned being out here. Everybody does it different. Everybody thinks different, everybody feels different. They some guys need the guy to do all the things, and I felt like I've felt like throughout my career. You know, Boyd's been enough and he's done a great job of just just again on my journey. You know, this is is
not a like a sprint. You know, golf is such a marathon that you know, sometimes people can look at a certain player and say, how come this guy is not as good as this guy? Or you know, and as they say, comparison is like the biggest thief of joy. So it's easy to compare yourself to other guys, but it's not really that. It's like, I think I'm better
today and this year than I was last year. And so that's actually what you're trying to do is just be better than yourself and keep chasing that instead of chasing like other stuff. So I think, but Boy's been a great addition to that.
Yeah, Tony, when we talk about Boyd and you and your relationship with him, you know a lot of our fitters out there talk about, well, you know, how do you marry fitting and coaching together. It's like one of the biggest questions should I fit the player for this swing they have today or the swing we want him to have. I think a few examples from you is you've changed, like, for example, your lyingle and your irons by close to two degrees over a couple of years.
Here it is Boyd coming in saying, hey, let's change your irons and change your swing at the same time. Like what comes first? You tweak your irons, you tweaking your swing both? What's that?
Yeah?
So Boyd's been great in teaching me this equipment always comes first. And what that means is, let's make sure that it's not the equipment. The equipment's performing before we make changes, you know. So like if I'm hitting a ball consistently with too much spin, is it the shaft? Is it the Let's make sure that we're dialed in
on that first. It's always equipment, you know. And so that's why it's so important to be with a equipment company that is the best, you know, like, and you truly believe in their product and the team that you're working with to where you tell them what you're feeling and they can come and say, oh, well, we got these options. This is what we think and work with them, right, And that's where ping has been amazing for me. I've been with you guys since twenty seventeen, and it's like
a family vibe. You know, I'm very comfortable being open with you guys. Hey, my driving, My driver's spinning right now. You know, just a couple of weeks ago, I had this conversation with Ko. You know, I was like a little bit spinning. I may not be swinging as hard as I was a couple of years ago when we had this shaft, So maybe I can try another a couple other shafts.
Right.
So equipment is like at the very top, and that's that's where board has taught me a lot, because I again just coming from not a lot, and I think whatever there was I played when I was a kid, it was like I was playing five different irons from different companies. I mean it was like whatever balls I found in the trees. Right, it was like against and yeah,
out of that right, like a totally mixed bag. Like sometimes you know, I never had the same clubs, but I've had to change my mindset into Okay, let's make sure the equipment fits the style I like to play, and then it is about you. Yeah, but equipment, equipment is like at the very top when it comes to like fitting stuff.
Yeaheah.
I think a few fun examples. One number one, you're the best player out here out of the rough. Maybe that's new news you and use our blueprint iron and irons very small hill to tell yes, And that's something we always talked about when we're designing is hey, because we're playing Arizona golf, not a lot of rough, it's hard for us to relate to. Then you get out here the Shanees playing how import and that is right?
I mean you're a great example of that. And then working on your langle and then even with your putter, right you and Boid have worked a lot on your setup and we even designed a special feature in iping for you that has that that moves the bubble level you know, which is really funny. So it's been it's been that relationship of the fitting set up. How important? What's that p L d uh and we designed and you helped design the answer two D and working with
Tony on that. So what has that process been? Like?
Tony's been great.
When I switched to the PLD, I got yeah A lot of times you don't get a meeta results, but I did get a meta results. Within the first couple of months I had won again after a long drought, and then I've been on a nice little run. But uh, I've been very open with Tony on how I how I feel with the putter, and he's been able to mold and shape the putter to exactly how I want it,
which is uh, which is invaluable. You know, when you're playing for the amount of money, the legacy, the you know, there's so much on the line for us each week. Each week we have an opportunity to change our life, and that starts from these little things.
You know, how do I get better?
And and so having a team again like Tony and ping around every week to.
Help me groove it is like super cool.
But to be able to like have the model fit my putting stroke, I think is extremely important.
That two D stands for deep, Like it's a deep answer. That's what you were looking for.
I'm saying I wanted a little thicker soul than just the regular answer, and that's exactly what I have in mind.
Now, what are some features on there? You've You've used Tony on the to help you with set up right.
Yeah, I think one of the most important things in putting is being set up to it the same way. So to help me with face am I actually put an arrow right underneath on the bottom of the heel, and I want the arrow to be facing around the middle of my stance, you know, And so that's why I know the face is square. If the arrow is facing to my left foot or to my right foot, I know where the face is. And so I think
face aim, especially on short puts, is extremely important. So we added a line there, and then I also have a line right over the top of the shaft. So my tennency is my hands to get a little too low. I like them low, but there is a you know, for me, there's still as sich thing as that's too low, and if I see too much of the white, then I know my hands are starting to get too low. So there are just a couple of things there that we've added to help me with my setup.
Yeah, you talked about your relationship with Ping. You came out on tour, you were a Nike Golf guy. Nike Golf goes away, so now you're a free agent. How did your relationship kick off with Ping.
Yeah, so I never hit a pink club in my life. Okay, this is twenty seven, this is twenty seventeen. I take that back. I had the I had the old one Ping, I two one iron, and I had that and I used to go driver driver straight to one iron. So I did have experience with it, and it was an amazing experience with this thing. I still I can't believe I don't have that.
Still, Can I ask you how far you carry the old school one iron?
Back in the day, I was finding like three hundred yards? Yeah, yeah, yeah, oh yeah, there's when I was a kid, there was no holding back. It was you know, we all hit the high Slinger. You know, it was no problem three hundred yards. But so that was the one club I've ever hit of Ping. But outside of that, I never, you know, never used Ping. So I was going through all the different club manufacturers. I had them send me,
send me clubs. I wanted to try everything, just to clear my conscious, to know that I truly have tried everything, and then I get to pick what I think is going to be best for me. I went to Scott, I went to Phoenix, went to headquarters at Ping, and it was just a bucket list. I don't think we're a listing where I just wanted to knock Ping off the list, just so I know my conscious that I
tried Ping and I can get rid of them. As soon as I start hitting these Eyeblades, like it was like this light went off of my head.
I was like, are you serious? These things? Are these clubs? Are that good?
So then I hit the you know, Then I hit the woods. Then I hit the driver, and I was like, all right, this is unbelievable.
I didn't drive. I knew.
I knew right there, I said, I'm playing Ping, So I had them. I played Eyeblades for the rest of seventeen and then and then the rest of eighteen, and at the end of eighteen is when they came out with the blueprints and I put the blueprints straight in and I've been playing the same set of blueprints since twenty eighteen. So it was It's quite a cool story that way, where I truly did try almost every club manufacturer, and for me, Ping was the best.
Yeah, Tony, I don't even know if you know this, but you also helped kicked off this idea where anyone who gets fit at Ping now marries their golf ball to their driver because remember the G four and er Max driver. Yeah, you hit that thing awesome.
Yeah I did.
But I remember that story where it was spinning a little too much and instead of changing the driver because you didn't want to take loft off it, that's when you started playing that left out ball.
That's right.
So we actually kind of used that as inspiration. I started personally used the left up ball because it's the same same thing, but we use that as inspiration. Now everybody marries ball and club together, you know, thanks to you.
I love that so good. Happy got good help.
Maybe as maybe asked for a bonus, he asked for like a slight contract bonus. Hey guys, if you guys just a little bit more, you talk about your best years or ahead of you, Tony, what's left? Like, what do you do you write down goals every year? Do you have that in mind? Or you just go out and try to play because you feel like such a cerebral guy, like you're just going out there and trying to have some fun and play some good golf.
Yeah, and that's a I think that's the crazy thing. You know.
Sometimes the misconception of either the nice guy or whatever the case. But I I don't think anybody at any level is great or successful without without a bit of a dog, without being a dog, but without without having a plan, you know, and without executing it, without having the work ethic, all those all the things that come with being great at something. So I could see how
I come off that way. But one hundred percent, you know, I make I make goals every year and and this year, you know, my my goal moving forward in my career is to win major championships.
You know.
And that's where I feel like I'm at in the pros of my career. And of course, you want to set yourself up every week to win. I want to win many more times on the PGA Tour, but major championships are what the great players win, and to put myself in that category, I need to win some. So I don't want to win one. I don't want to win two. I want to win a few of them. So my biggest thing is Number one, stay healthy. I think I've been fortunate in my career up to this point.
I'm about to start my tenth season. I haven't had any major injuries, so I think that that's extremely important for me for the next dozen years of my career. I think if that's the case, I'm going to have a chance to win some major championships. So my health,
I would say, is at the very top. And if if I'm healthy, I think for the next dozen years, then then I moved to the golf portion of it and make sure that no stone is unturned when it comes to my game and trying to continue to progress, continue to improve, and and and knock off some major championships in my in my career.
What do you do? What do you do from investment side, on your time, investment on your fitness side to make sure you stay injury for you? And how does BOYD weave into that or swing mechanics and things of that nature.
Yeah, well boy doesn't doesn't help me a lot with with nutrition or with working out or anything.
You know.
I've got a trainer that I use, Stuart Love. I've been with him for seven years nice, so he's He's been a huge help as far as that department goes. With the lifestyle that I have on the road, it's a lot easier for me to work out, honestly than than when I'm at home because I'm with my kids a lot. Yeah, you know, we're together all the time. When I'm home, I have to sprinkle it in before they wake up late at night, you know. So it's it's just it's just making sure I get it in
when I can, you know. And it's but it's it's the most important thing that you have, you know, our is our health. So I know that that's the case for me, and I try to stay on top of it. My diet has gotten better, i would say, every year and every season of my career, just because you know, you don't want that old age to slow you down, you know, And.
So I've tried to eat better. I've tried different types.
Of diets to see how my body reacts to it, and again just trying to figure out all of that. But I've worked hard to stay in shape, and you have to at this level to be to be any good.
What's your current diet thought right now? Where are we at right now, Tony?
Yeah, So I was on the carnivore diet for six weeks. I just stopped that a couple of weeks ago.
So that's just that's just meat and vegetables, No it's just meat, just meat.
Yeah, so real quick, what is the breakfast? Like, what's bread? Yeah?
So I would eat I only had two mills sixteen so so breakfast, I'd eat a sixteen ounce rabbi, three strips of bacon, and either like a chicken.
Thigh or like two or three eggs. This awesome.
And then I would only beef jerky throughout my like while I while I practice, and then at night I'd have like maybe some lamb chops and like a couple of strips of bacon. Yeah, and then true carnival. There's like levels to this, and I don't want to get too far, too deep into it. Two carnivores only eat beef, which is from the cow, and they'll eat nose to
tail meaning everything. I'm not extreme like that. I like, I thought it was hard enough just to eat meat, you know, So I I'm fine with, you know, adding pork, and I ate lamb, and I ate chicken and fish, you know. So I was kind of the next level down from the extreme carnivores. But I thought there was a lot of great things to it.
You know.
I lost twelve pounds, but it mostly you cut out carbs and vegetables and and sugars, you know, And.
So I thought that. I thought it was great.
I took what I liked from it, and I'm now into a different phase where, you know, I like fruits way too much to just totally get.
Rid of them. I think it's the great the greatest source of sugar that you could have. So I've had.
I'm now added fruit and some vegetables back into my back into my diet. But it was a it was a good diet while it lasted. I thought it had some great benefits.
Is it easy for you to stay disciplined with that stuff?
Are you good about that? Yeah?
I am pretty disciplined when it comes to that because I want to, I truly want to understand if it's working for me or yeah, I want to see what's really happening to my body. If I'm not disciplined enough, I'm not really going to understand if it's actually working. So for six straight, for four straight weeks, I was
hardcore carnivore. For the two weeks after that, I added fruit because I felt I actually felt like I had to like my I think my sugar level was my glucose And this is again I was in the middle of the season, like I probably shouldn't be trying this stuff like that and being that disciplined.
But there's never really a good time to to.
Try if you guys haven't had an off season, like, yeah, twenty five years exactly, so good news to take some time off this ball.
It's one of the fun things I've loved Tony about having you and other players on is how much you guys do experiment, Like, you know, it's like self experimentation, whether it's on diet, routine, swinging, training aids.
You name it.
You know, you got to take a little bit of risk once a while, experiment.
I would say guys aren't scared to change. I think they truly know. Again, they're stubborn enough to know how good they are and great at what they do, and and if they think something is going to be better for them, then they're not.
They're not scared to try it, Tony.
How's a sneaker collection? Is it?
Yeah? It's pretty Is it extensive?
It's pretty good. It's not that extensive. I do have a pretty nice Jordan collection, but it's mostly aj One's high tops and low tops. Okay, some fives, some elevens because I only collect the ones.
I'm actually going to wear.
Yeah, yeah, you know, I'm not like a Jordan guy where it's like I have the one through thirteen and you know all the different color waves. I actually get the shoes I wear right right, So yeah, but it's pretty solid, you know, thanks to Nike and Jordan. I you know, I get the get shoes for free.
So it's kind of nice.
Tony, you're the man. We appreciate you taking some time. Keep crushing it. Fun to watch, fun to listen to your chat about it too. I mean, what are a unique journey. It's been uh, it's been fun to watch. I'm you know what, I'm excited to see too. I'm excited to see Preston playing golf and raw. It's gonna look like when he turns professional. Very different journey.
But we appreciate the time so much. Thanks, thanks for having me. Thanks m HM