Eric Cole

him on and kind of talk about his journey. Very much a late bloomer, he's thirty four years old, but I think it's a great opportunity to listen to someone who's kind of been through everything that you can kind of go through in the game of golf. You know, you're trying to play professionally, you're trying to make as much money as possible, get off those mini tours, and he has managed to do that. Really excited for everyone

to hear that. But before we get to the interview, let's take a moment to talk about Cobra Golf's new aerojet driver. I've been with Cobra Puma for a long time and huge fan of their products. I think they make the best equipment in the game. They've got a new Aerojet Driver out. I got it towards the end of last year, went straight into my bag. They're three

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face fast. That's going to give you more distance. Everybody wants more distance. I think if you give this driver a try, you are going to like it. You can check out all three drivers and pick which one is right for you at Cobra golf dot com. So a big shout out to the Cobra Puma team for their support. And now let's get to the interview. So Eric, um, it's been a hell of a couple of weeks for you. Um, you know you got your PGA Tour card. You miss.

I think the first four cuts in the fall, and I mean as a rookie coming off the corn Ferry that puts you behind the eight ball early. Did you feel pressure and I mean did the start kind of make you kind of freak out a little or were you just like, listen, it's a long season. I know my game is good. Um, what's that? What's that start? Like? Yeah, you know, I mean it's it's definitely a bigger environment

and everything than the corn Ferry Tour. But you know, I even though I missed a lot of those cuts, I actually played pretty well. Two of them I missed by one, um, and I felt pretty good about my game as a whole. I just didn't score all that well. And I had a couple like weird things. I had COVID for the first tournament in Napa, and then I had had my club stolen in Vegas in front of the hotel, so back window broken out in clubs just jacked right out of the back windows. So you know,

a couple of weird things like that. But I, like I said, I felt good about my game overall, So I was kind of just under the mindset that eventually the title kind of turn a little bit. That's a tough I mean, a rookie on the PGA tour, you're trying to play good early your clubs gets so I mean, was that during the was that at night? Was that in the morning. It was at three pm in the afternoon at the JW. Marriott in Vegas in Summerland, So

it was very unusual. You know, they had some video of the guys, you know, breaking into it, but nothing ever really came of it with the cops. But I do. It's kind of a crazy thing. I had a girl messaged me on Instagram like a month or two after and she said, I just moved into a new house and your clubs are sitting in my garage. So then sound like, yeah, you know, I'd like to have him if you don't mind. So he drove them from her house to TPC Summerland, and then the pro there sent

them to my house. So I actually got him back and everything everything was in there except my tour credential was it was stolen. But so so there's somebody else trying to get into family dining with your tour credential potentially, Yeah, I might have to have security lookout for them. I mean, the story, I mean, it is an amazing story. I mean, you're thirty four years old. I mean definitely, um, not the norm for PGA Tour rookies. Um, I mean we

both live in South Florida. The minor league where you played a lot fifty how many fifty four wins in the minor league. Yeah, I'm not sure exactly what it is. I I it's up there somewhere though. Um, that is a that is a huge kind of stepping stone for a lot of players. I mean, I mean if you live in South Florida, Um, a lot of good players come off that tour. Brooks Kepta his brother played there. A bunch of guys, Chrispin Tour has played. I mean,

guys play that. Um. Obviously there's no substitute for winning, and I work with a bunch of you know, kids that are on that tour. How important do you feel like the minor league has been for your development? I

think it's definitely been important. You know. You you one thing about that they do mostly one and two day events, and when you play a lot of one and two day events, you you have a chance to win a lot of tournaments and you kind of get in this mindset of you know, they have like a live leader board that you can look at and you get in this mindset of you know, Okay, I I to win this tournament, I have to birdie three the last five, or I have to birdie the last two or whatever

it is. And I think just getting that, whether it's pressure or you know, expectation on yourself and then kind of seeing yourself do it every once in a while, I think it's really uh it kind of sets you set you up well for you know, four day tournaments or whether guys are going to go out and do Monday qualifiers. Like I think it's really good prep as a whole. And golf in South Florida, as you know, is really strong. And even though you haven't heard of a lot of the guys out there, um, you know,

there's a lot of good players. Most of the purses right around a thousand, maybe fifteen hundred bucks, and then you finish second at the Honda and you make almost a million. My I guess my question is because I get I have so many players that are trying to

do what you're you're doing right. They have a dream, they play a high school golf, they play college golf, and I don't think the average golf fan realizes I mean, they were only seeing when they're watching the PGA Tour on Sundays and they're watching you know, like last weekend bay Hill. I mean you're seeing some of the best players in the world, so it all looks normal. You know,

Jordan Speech didn't have to struggle. M he just went you know, Matt Woll for eight rounds into his PGA Tour career, he wins a PGA Tour event, right, and he was we were we were at a tournament um last last week, the live tournament. We were talking about we're in a practice round and were talking about guys were talking about yeah when they went to the European

Tour and Brooks was talking about travel. He and Peter the struggle early and Matt Wolfe was like, I love hearing these stories because I didn't have any of that. I mean, I won my second tournament out. But the road is so long the minor league from playing you know, Mini tour golf, then you go to corn Ferry and then you go to the PGA Tour. What is the difference, would you say? Because I'm always saying the players listen, it's golf, right, and you know that it is golf.

Golf is wherever you're playing it. Yes, the stage on the PGA Tour is bigger, there's more fans, But does that kind of do a mind trick on you to make you think that it's just not the same, because I think everybody is trying to work their way to that's trying to play competitive golf. Everybody wants to play the PGA Tour, and I think some of it is as much at times they struggle mentally as they technique

or physically. Yeah, no, I agree. I mean, you know, the golf ball doesn't know the difference whether you're out with your buddies playing a minor league or it's the last all the PGA Tour events. So there's definitely some truth to that, and you know there's there's definitely a The biggest change, it's just like the depth, right, So you know when you play minor leagues that the top

five guys are really good. A lot of them have had success in the past and are just playing coming back from an injury or just because they're in town or something, so that the top as you go down is almost always still pretty strong, especially in South Florida.

But you know, like the depth might fall off a little bit when you get into minor league, and then you know it gets stronger when you get into the corn Ferry Tour, like all those guys have kind of proven themselves in college or Q school or past seasons out there, and then you know, the PGA Tour is just like another step up from there where you know the back end is just you know, like a little bit deeper, a little bit more accomplished players that are

have more experience, but that you know, to to win at any level of professional golf, you know, you you have to play some great golf and you have to you know, battle with a little bit of mental stuff or a little bit you know, not having your best stuff and getting the most out of it. So you know, winning is good at any level. And I think it definitely kind of u is a good pattern to get into, you know, whether it's junior golf or professional golf at

a lower level. Like when you start to win, you start to gain confidence and you start to feel more comfortable. Is there anybody so you come out on tour, m is there anyone you've been star struck by where you've walked past them while they're on the driving range and kind of had that you know whoa I mean, that guy's like I play now. I mean, it's like being in the NBA, right and you've never you've never seen Lebron before and all of a sudden you go up

against him. I mean, is there an element of of being star struck in or there any players that you like bay Hill last week you're playing against, you know right now some of the best players on the planet. Did you see anybody last week that you hadn't seen before kind of go and you kind of went, Wow,

there he is. Yeah, I mean I think you have a little bit of that for sure, you know, like warming up, Like I get there a little bit early, and I'm at the back of most of the waves tea time wise, so a lot of the like big name players are just finishing their warm up and you know, I mean, I I uh, you know, hit ball is next to a bunch of guys that are you know,

always on TV and playing great golf. And but the cool thing is a lot of them kind of you know, I think because a lot of them didn't play the Honda because of the designate events before and after I had a bunch of people who you know, are big names that I've never really met come up to me and say like, hey man, we watched you or you know, like you looked good and we're you know, like happy you played well and stuff. So that was kind of cool.

Do you feel like now, after everything you've been through, that you've arrived, that there's that moment where you say, Okay, I've been trying to do this. I'm somewhat of a late bloomer. I'm thirty four years old. This has always been my dream and having a big finish. You had a chance to win, you lost in a playoff in a you know, on a really difficult golf of course. How many times have you played PGA National. I'm sure

you've played it, not that much or a lot. I've played a couple of minor league events there and then I've probably played it maybe ten other times just over the years living in the area, so I've probably played it around twenty times, I'd say, so. I wouldn't say I have a whole lot of course knowledge, but it was you know, it's a home event. So that was nice. So the obvious question at thirty four, you've been trying to do this, you caddied, I mean I read you

caddied for Sam Saunders, Arnie's grandson. I mean what years did you caddy for Sam and how long did you do that? Yeah, I caddied for him kind of in two different little spurts. I caddied for him in like twenty twelve was probably the biggest. I probably did like five or six months in twenty twelve where he I think he was playing corn Ferry Tour, but he got some spots in PGA Tour events with sponsors exemptions, So

I probably caddied for him for five months then. And then I also caddied for him in like twenty eighteen. I was coming back from a back injury, and I was kind of like his coach caddy for a few months for like six months or so. So I did like the Florida Swing with him, like kind of trying to help him with his game as much as I could, and caddied Honda Bay Hill players for him that year.

So what is caddying for a player on the PGA Tour teach you about playing on the PGA Tour that you took to your own game, Because I'm sure I mean that that's got to be an invaluable tool for you because obviously you're trying to play, he's trying to play. You're on the back, so you're on the other side of it. Um, did you take anything from those caddying experiences that you feel like you took with you? Yeah,

for sure. I'd say. The one thing is like the top players, you know, like you can you can really see the difference between the top let's say twenty in the world. Sam didn't necessarily play with any of them when I was cattying, but you could just see the difference in the game, the way they hit the ball.

You know, their their preparation is a little different. But so those guys I could kind of tell like separated themselves and also almost on the opposite spectrum, like you know, the line between let's say fiftieth in the world and that might be a little too low, like seventieth in the world and two hundredth in the world is unbelievably fine.

So I felt like, you know, Sam was having a decent year or had a decent year of the year before something like that, and you know, like just this separation between those guys that are around you know, one twenty five or one hundred or one fifty, Like the line is just so unbelievably thin to separate those guys, and I felt like, you know, everyone's kind of trying to look for that little edge to kind of make that little bit of a difference to whether it's keep

your card or randomly have a great week and win. So that that was, you know, I kind of thought that I knew that, but to see it up close and personal was definitely a little eye opening. Let's take a moment to thank for Wellness for supporting the show. You guys hear me talk about them every week, and the reason I do that is because I drink their

coffee every week. I know lots of people are focusing on health and wellness as we start the new year, but what I love most about their coffee is that there isn't anything artificial and no artificial ingredients, sweeteners, creamers and all the junk that isn't good for you. It's only the good stuff giving you more energy without typical crashes you get when a lot of your coffee. And if you have a lot of sugar in your coffee, give it a try and use the special CODEH three.

That code will get you twenty percent off your order, plus free shipping and a free starter kit worth thirty dollars when you visit for Wellness dot com slash podcasts. Again, that's the code H three at fowellness dot com slash podcasts. So what do you think it took you longer than it's taken other people. I mean, I mean you've had some injuries, Addison's disease. I know that's something that that you fight that makes it hard for you to put on weight, is it correct? Yeah, I mean it's a

it's a bunch of stuff. You typically lose weight pretty quickly if you don't take the right medication pretty much. I'm also a Type one diabetics, So that was that was a little bit of a setback starting and then uh, like for me, it was just Q school was really hard for me for like five or six years. Like I you talk about mini tour golf. I played a lot of really good, high level mini tour golf for you know, most of the year, and then I would get to Q School and there would just be like

a little bit of a performance block. Like I I think that like I just put a lot of expectations on myself, Like you know, like I would I would have a good Mini Tour year and win a lot of tournaments and you know, beat a lot of guys who have had success, and I thought, you know, like

this should be something that's easy for me. And then when it didn't go well, like that, really uh like that inability to perform in the situation that one week or two weeks in Q school at first or second stage was something that took a while for me to get over. And you know, for whatever reason and that it was, it was a slow moving process. Is it hard when you go through that too? Because I'm on the other side of it, right, I'm on the coaching

side of it, the instructor side of it. When you have, like you said, you're you're doing all the right things. You're playing on a mini tour, you're having success, you're winning, you're seeing progress, and you know, there's a lot of people you know at somebody, Oh, I'm sure you've played a ton of golf with who's kind of a mini tour legend down here for the minor league, Sonny Kim. I mean, Sonny's in the same boat, right, Sonny is like a legit, legit player, and my trainer M Pierre.

So Pierre was telling me he's played a lot of mind and he always says, bro Sonny like lights it up. And every time he goes to Q school he struggles is do you think do you think it? Like you said, is it performance? Is it anxiety? Is it mental? Because obviously, if you're winning, I mean, I don't care. My dad always says, so, I don't care where it is, I don't care what tournament course conditions. If you're if you're winning and you're winning at a good rate, that is

going to translate eventually. Yeah, I kind of agree with that sentiment. But for me, it was just, you know, for whatever reason, there was like a little bit, I think in my case, there was a little bit of two high expectations that I put on myself. Like I went to first stage and I was like, you know, this should be something that's very easy for me to get through. Everyone that I play against, I feel like

I'm as good or better. It's the same guys at first stage that played mini tour golf all year round. It's like, you know, this should be something that I should just be able to breeze through. And then for whatever reason, it was just like a little bit of a speed bump and instead of having a you know, don't worry about it, it's one round or one nine holes. At the beginning of Q School, I was kind of like, you know, am I going to be able to do this?

Is this something that I can get through? You know, like you start to doubt yourself a little bit, and you start to feel like, you know, like maybe it's not meant to be type of thing, and uh, you know, Sonny is a great player. I've put a lot of mini tour golf with him over the years and he is so unbelievably good. So I mean, I think I think it's one of those things where you just have

to figure out what works for you. And it's probably different for every player, but for me, it was kind of giving myself a little bit of a break and saying, you know, I don't I don't have to You don't have to win Q School. You don't have to you know, prove to everybody how much better you are than them. You could just play good, solid, consistent golf and you know, if if your games at the level it should be,

then you should be able to get through. And that was took me a while to realize that as a rookie you're learning a lot of new courses. I mean, you know there's courses on the PGA Tour that you've never played before. Is it a fair comment having come off the corn Ferry, Um, you finish I think third at the tour champion at their their kind of season ending tournament of championship, how much more difficult or the golf course is, because I mean last week bay Hill?

I mean do you do you play golf courses like that on the corn Ferry that are set up like that? Now like bay Hill? I mean the biggest difference is like the firmness and fastness of the green. So you know, on the corn Ferry Tour you play a lot of actually really good courses tea green. But you know, for whatever reason, whether it's the course set up or the time of year that we go there, Um, you know, like the courses just placed so much slower so that

the ball in the fairway isn't hitting and running. So when you're hitting into like dog like part fours, uh dog led right and left part four is you know, like the ball is just hitting and stopping. So it's a lot easier to hit in the fairway and then hitting into the green. If you do hit it in the rough, the rough flower and the greens are more receptive.

So you kind of just have like this three tier thing of the course being slower, the rough being down, and the greens being just softer that it makes it to where the scores are lower. So you know, it's it's definitely a different environment. Yeah, and then obviously on the corn Ferry you can go out on Thursday and

shoot to under and being almost last place. Yeah, you know, there's a lot there's there are, I mean, there are a lot of easy courses we play on the corn Ferry Tour too, Like they're not all difficult, but you know, it's mostly set up like I said that everything is just so much softer and slower, and you know you can just get away with more like making like short siding yourself on the corn Ferry Tour in general isn't that big of a deal, you know, like you can

you can kind of get something up there where you have a five foot or for par last week at bay Hill, if you short side yourself, I mean you're looking at like a good shot is like twenty or thirty feet, So all of a sudden, those shots into the greens, although there might not be water on some of them, they turn into penalty shots if you miss a green. So it's just it's just more demanding as

a whole. Yeah, and I think that the golf courses, yeah, from a shape, I've heard that before that guys say, listen, the conditions are t degreen are fun, but the green complexes. Um, do you feel like one of your strengths in talking to a lot of people that know you well, is short game? Right? You're not going to be a bomber, You're not going to hit it up with you know some of the guys on tour. Do you feel like

short game is where you can really really excel. Yeah, I mean typically, like you said, it typically is one

of my strengths. So you know, it's it's tricky because as the rough gets up, you know, like the skill of short game shots and I think goes down a little bit because everyone's kind of just hacking it out of the rough and trying to get it to, you know, as close as they can for par But you know, there's certain courses out here where they have a lot of shaved areas and stuff, and I think that kind of helps you make up some shots on the field

around the greens. So like this week, I think at the players there's I noticed today there's a lot of like you know, first cut and closely mown areas around versus last time when I was here candy for Sam and I think I mentioned to my caddy, I think it's a really good move because when you do miss a green, it's it's kind of inviting a little bit of skill set into the short game shots like what shots are you choosing, you know, versus just the hack

and out of the ruff to twenty feet. Yeah. I mean, I don't think a lot of the people listening and people that watch golf realize that when you do get that kind of us open Bay hill, that really really thick thick ruff, that there really are no options, right, there's no imagination. Your your technique, if you've got a great technique, if you can spin it, if you can go up in trajectories. The runoff areas at TPC Sawgrass, I think are some of the hardest to navigate, But

it also allows you to be really, really creative. Have you always had a great short game and is part of it what part of it would you say is your technique? Which part of it would you say is kind of your creativity, that kind of special sauce that you know. I mean on tour, everybody's short games are pretty good. You can't make it. You can't make it to the PGA Tour and be bad at short game. But then there are the you know, the elite of the elite, the Jason Days, the Patrick Reeds, Jordan Tiger

in the day. Are you a blend? Is it technique or is it execution and kind of finesse. I think it's a blend for sure. I think for anybody, you know, I growing up in Florida, you know, like you deal with a lot of grain, a ton of grain, and so I think naturally just learn to kind of chip out of some like rough lies and uh, you know lies that aren't that easy for people that aren't from Florida.

So I think that probably helped me, especially with the creativity and kind of using you know, just your sixty degree in different ways and kind of learning different shots to hit with it. Um, But yeah, it's it's I'd say it's a blend of technique and you know, it's definitely as you get closer to green, the uh you know, like the field side and the artistic side of golf definitely become more important. I mean, you were, you were hooping it from everywhere at Honda. I mean, so what

was different about Honda that week? Because I'm always fascinated with players in talking to them about the weeks they win or the weeks they have chances to win. What's different and how can you access that more often? Yeah, that's a great question. I had three really good days

of ball striking. I don't know the stats really showed it, just because you know, Honda, you have those those really tough shots like you know five and six and fifteen and seventeen where you know you're not really trying to hit it close to the hole on most of those. So the stats didn't really say that I had a

great ball striking week. But I hit the ball where I was aiming a lot in the right distance the first three days, So that was that was huge, And then I think that helped with my I didn't have a great ball striking day the last round, but that

helped with my comfort going into the last round. Like I think I felt a lot more comfortable than maybe I might have anticipated feeling, just because my confidence was high from the first three days ball striking wise, and then, like you said, I did make my fair share of huts on the last day, so that was that was very welcome. I was happy to see that. Obviously, you play professional golf to win. Everybody wants to win tournaments.

Going into Sunday at the Honda, when in the round, did you kind of know, Okay, I have a legit. I mean it's not now, Okay, if I shoot sixty four today, I could post something. When did you kind of have that moment to where you're like, okay, I am. I am in the room now, and there's only about five people that can win this golf tournament, and I'm one of them. Yeah, I'd say probably maybe eleven. I birdied eleven, which is which is I think is one of the hardest holes on that golf course. We got.

We got lucky where it was. It's got pretty firm and it was downwind. So my t shot I didn't. I only hit five wood and I kind of pushed it down there where I could hit a pitching legend. So that was helpful to that pin for sure. But when I birdied eleven, I think I got within one and you know, like we hadn't really separated ourselves, but I think, you know, like there was a little bit of room behind us, maybe two shots, and you know, at that point I was like, Okay, you know, you're

you're you're right in the middle of this. If if you just keep doing what you're doing, you know, you never know what's going to happen by the time we get to you know, eighteen or seventeen or something. So the sports psychologists always say take one shot at a time, But all of a sudden, you birdie eleven and you look at you look at a leaderboard and you're like, okay, is it hard? And were you able to stay in the moment or like you said in the past, was

the expectation of what you an opportunity? Did you go back into that or did you stay in kind of just one shot at a time? Yeah, No, I felt really good, so I definitely stayed in one shot at a time. You know, one good thing about playing the Honda is at the champ those shots are so hard on the you know, like once you get to fourteen, every shot is you know, very difficult shot, so it's hard to get too far ahead of yourself because you know, the shot that's right in front of you is kind

of like a make or break shot. So I think, you know, I think that's a fortunate thing about the Honda, where you're not like looking up where oh, you know, sixteens and easy birdie or seventeens and easy bird like, those holes are pretty hard, so you're just focusing on hitting a good shot right in front of you. And uh, you know, I had a lot of family and friends out there kind of yeah, Allen and keeping me in it, so you know, it goes pretty easy to stay in

the moment because it was so much fun. I didn't really want to get ahead of myself because of how cool this whole environment was, is it. I often think that a lot of players, when they get in situations like that, it's not fun. They don't see it as fun and it hurts them and thinking, Okay, I've got a chance to win a PGA Tour event, my family's here, I'm going to go out and enjoy as much of

this as I possibly can. That sounds easy to do, but it also seems like it should be easy to do because I mean at the end, at the end of the day, it's it's golf, right, I mean, that's that's yeah, No, I mean it's it's I mean, I could understand if you get in that position, then you get off to a really bad start and there's all those people around and you're really having a bad day

where it cannot be a lot of fun. But you know, I mean, I played a lot of golf all over the place, and I've never really had an experience quite like that in that environment, and it's it's something that it's it's almost like a little bit like a drug. Like I've never done any real drugs in my life, but I just feel like like it was so exhilarating to be in that environment and have a chance to

win that it's like it's addicting. It's like something that you kind of want to experience again and uh, you know,

hopefully get a different result at the end. But you know, like it's it's it's just such a cool environment, like it really feels like you know, like you play a lot of golf where it's just you know, uh, the other guys you're playing with and ten people watching or twenty people watching, and it doesn't really have like a sports feel to it, And especially at the Honda like on seventeen, with like closed inn like you really do feel like you're in a like you're you're an athlete

and a sporting event. And I think that was something that, like I said, I'd never had that experience on a golf course, and it was It's definitely addicting. I think everybody saw the putt you hit on eighteen, I mean a cruel lipout. If you had it to do over again, would you hit the same put did you? Was it the right read, the right speed? I mean, if you if if they took you back out there and said, all right, you can do this again and we'll give you the trophy, would you hit the exact would you

do the exact same thing? I think I would just take a little pace off it. I think I just hit it barely too hard. You know, I wasn't going to stand in there and leave it short, so uh, you know, like I wanted to make sure. I wanted to make sure I hit a good put and gave it a chance. And I think I just gave it just you know, six inches too much speed, that it just didn't quite take the break. But did you think

you'd made it halfway? Yeah? When I hit it, I hit a great pot, and you know I don't use a line on my ball, but I kind of put a line through the titleist, and you know, I saw it lead the putter and it was rolling end over end, and I was like, you know, I've been putting well all day, and you know, I definitely thought I made

it halfway there. But as it got to the whole, like I kind of saw it was on the high side, and like I said, I think it just had maybe six inches too much pace to kind of take that little bit of break. We mentioned almost a million dollars. Um. You know, there's so much talk in professional golf about money. The live guys went for guaranteed money, UM talked to it.

I don't think the average fan realizes because they only see the Netflix documentary and they see everybody flying around on a on a net jet and living in these giant mansions. Um. It's hard to make it in professional sports, but professional golf, I mean the money aspect of it. It's not easy, is it. Yeah? No, I mean we're talking about the minor league tour, like, I mean, you grind out tournaments and you know when six hundred bucks

and stuff like that at a time. So it's it's you know, there's definitely a different side to what you see on TV as far as guys trying to make it. UM. But you know, it's it's it's worth the work once you get here. I'd say, you know, I mean, that's that's a lot of money and it's something that you know, I've worked really hard for. So but you know, it does take a lot of work for not I mean, I guess a lot of guys are straight out of college on the PGA tour, but in my case, it

took a lot of time and a lot of work. Obviously, with the ever changing landscape of of the PGA tour, UM, it seems like, you know, different things are happening with regards to events. Um. This puts you in a really good position, um, because everybody wants to be one of these guys inside the top seventy to get into these big, you know, twenty million dollars no cut tournaments. Um. Do you feel a sense of a little bit of relief that some of the pressure he's taken off the other thing.

Talk to me about the rerank. I don't think everybody realizes you get your PGA Tour card you're a rookie. But if you don't play well early, the amount of tournaments you get an opportunity to play in becomes pretty limited. Yeah, Like, so you know, getting your card is obviously a monumental thing. It's a great thing. But you know, when those fifty cards come out, you know, like where you stand on that list is pretty important just to start with as

far as getting access to play tournaments. And then as you play, there's a kind of reshuffle within your category that kind of makes it to where you get in tournaments or not. And a lot of times in the corn ferry category, the field is kind of filled and it stops in that category somewhere, so the last man in might be the tenth guy on that reach shuffle list, or it might be the forty five guys. So as you play well, you move up your reshuffle list. And

it's extremely important to have a good start. And like you mentioned at the beginning, I didn't get off to the best start, so there was a little bit of added you know, I'm not sure what the word is, but I was trying really hard to motivation, I guess, to try and get on that list and move my

way up. Obviously, the big thing about somewhat being safe with FedEx cup points and money is your schedule changes a lot and you have a lot more opportunities to play in events that when you're not playing well and coming off to corn Ferry, you're you're just not going to get in? Are there tournaments now that you probably thought you wouldn't get into that you're legit thinking now, okay, I'm gonna have an opportunity to get into that tournament. Yeah,

I mean the players will start right now. I most likely was not going to get into players. Um so that's that's definitely an added bonus and uh yeah, I mean it definitely changes, you know, as you as you do well, you get more options to play tournaments, and uh you know, uh, probably the rest side of it

becomes as important as anything else. You know, like maybe whereas before you're looking like, man, I want to play in every tournament I can, and then as you do better, you almost want to be like, you know, is there a tournament I could take off because of these big tournaments I just played before? So you know, there's definitely a little bit of a shift there. But UM, you know, those are all good things as as you play good golf. Has the UM the quest for your autograph UM gone

up in a two week span? Have you noticed that people now notice who you are a little bit. Yeah, I've definitely had a few more autograph requests. UM. You know, like some of the people in the crowd out and volunteer know my name. That's kind of nice. When I registered this morning, they knew who I was, which is a little unusual. Most of the time I have to say and spell my last name so they know where I am on the list. But yeah, no, it's been great.

It's another one of those things that you know that comes with good golf. And I'm really trying hard to play good golf, so I'm I'm happy with all those other things that come with it. You mentioned having your family at Honda, your father Bobby Cole, your mom Laura Ball. I mean, they were both great players. They both played on the men's and women's side. I come from a similar background, as you chose to do the same thing

that you know my dad did. You did the same. Um, how much of that is a blessing, and how much of that at times can be you know, a curse because it's I mean I struggled for that for a long time, the imposter syndrome to where you're like, am I really good enough to be out here? My dad it's like the greatest of all time and what I do and I'm trying to do what he does. I mean,

did you go through any of that? Uh? Yeah, not not as much because, um, you know, like I feel like my parents had great careers and they were great players, but they weren't like, you know, like the very best. They weren't, you know, like my one of my best friends, Sam Saunders, and you know, I mean his grandpa's Honor Palmer. That's that's a different level of success. And there's a lot that comes with that, um, you know, both good

and bad things. But I think in my case, I mostly got good things, you know, Like I don't really have a whole lot of you know, negatives or pressure that comes with it, because, like I said, my parents are are really well known in the golf world, but you know, they're not like, you know, someone walking down the street doesn't necessarily know who my mom or dad are, so I think, you know, it's it's been mostly positive and it hasn't really been a huge like pressure point

me or anything. Lastly, what are the goals now? I mean, because have the goals changed from what you set out to do when you started last fall? And I mean do you feel like, Okay, I know I can win now because I'm one pot away from having an opportunity to to be a PGA Tour winner. Yeah. I mean, I'd say some of the goals are probably changing a little bit. But you know, in general, for me, like

I really try and focus. It sounds like a little cliche, but I try and focus on like a you know, a process type of thing where my job is to just make sure that I'm in one of my goals when I write them down at the beginning of the year, is just to be fully prepared for every tournament. And I think like, if I'm fully prepared and you know, ready to kind of execute my golf to its highest ability, then you know, a lot of the accomplishment stuff kind

of takes care of itself. And you know that's you know, there's a lot of guys that say that, but for me, um, you know, like it's it makes it so much easier for me to just focus on you know, as long as I have confidence in how I'm playing and my ability. Um, if I'm fully prepared to play every tournament, then I think, you know, the the other stuff should just kind of fall in line. Well, I'm excited. I think everybody's excited

to see, um, what you do. And I mean and obviously the hard flex getting down on one knee and proposing to your longtime girlfriend at Pebble Beach during the at and t I mean, if you can win a tournament, I mean, this is I mean, this is storybook kind of first year on the PGA Tour. Yeah, it's been pretty cool. I mean, she's she's lucky, she's been able to come out a lot. And you know that week at Pebble for me was for us was it was

a great week. And uh, you know it, I played well that week, but the truth is that was a great week whether I would have played well or not. So And you said you liked kind of the the atmosphere of lots of people. You're gonna get a big dose of that at seventeen at TPC. Just remember, it's a wedge all that water doesn't really mean anything. It's a wedge. Yeah that's true. Yeah, it's you probably wouldn't

miss that green very out. You wouldn't see pros missing that green very often if it wasn't that atmosphere with water all around it, that's for sure. Well, best of luck. I know you're really busy, so thanks for taking time to talk and keep it going. Man, the winds are out there, go get them. Thanks, no worries, Thanks for having me on. So that was Eric Cole. And what a cool story, right? I mean this if this kid managed to get a victory on the PGA Tour this year.

I mean, there are Cinderella stories, but then there are Cinderella stories. I mean, the guy gets engaged at Pebble Beach, miss is the first four cuts in the fall, almost wins his first PGA to event and what's a home game for him, and then goes from basically no status plan on many tours to if he could win a PGA Tour event. I think it would be an unbelievable story. Really glad that we got to talk to him, and I think there was some really really good stuff in there.

If you're trying to play competitive golf. This is a good podcast because here's a kid that's kind of done it all and been at every level. So really glad that he came on and got to talk to him. Players Championship this week, the flagship event on the PGA Tour. Rory McElroy coming out today. I'm gonna use Rory's words. You guys can take from this what you want. The emergence of Live or the emergence of a competitor has been has been beneficial to everyone playing elite professional golf.

And then he had John rom saying, yeah, a lot of the changes that are being made on the PGA Tour were as a result of Live. I think everybody knows that. I think it's been interesting to watch some of the people on the PGA Tour try and act like all the stuff that the Live guys were doing was just the devil and it was just completely detrimental. But it is forced the PGA Tour to make an enormous amount of changes. It is forced the PGA Tour

to find an enormous amount of money. It's forced the PGA Tour to find a way to get an enormous amount of money to their best players. And anybody that thinks that this is being driven by not the players on the PGA Tour. I think the one thing that Live is done is it made everybody regardless of what side of this year on whether you play on Live and you went or whether you stayed on the PGA Tour and went, I think one of the things that

it did. And I talked to a bunch of players last year before any of this happened, and I asked them what they thought, and they said, you know, the one thing that this is an opportunity is for the players to be recognized as having a voice. And so I have always been pro player. That's why I think that the best players world, regardless of where they play, should have the right and be able to make as

much money as possible. And you know, the tour has tried to come out and say that it was trophies and it was legacy and now there's ten events, no cut, small fields, guaranteed money for ten events. If that sounds familiar, It certainly sounds familiar to me. Maybe if all of these guys at the top on the PGA Tour, if you've got Roy McElroy, who is basically the de facto spokesman of the PGA Tour. And you've got John rom

the number one player in the world. If you've got them actually addressing and identifying the thousand pound elephant in the room and saying, yeah, we've made these changes because of what Live is done, then maybe there's an opportunity for coexistence to where the PGA Tour does their thing, Live does their thing. Maybe there's a way it somewhere down the road. I don't think it happens anytime soon. Maybe there's a way that players just stop being at

war with each other. And I do not fundamentally believe why you have to pick and choose between Live or the PGA Tour. If you like golf and you like the PGA Tour, and that's where you want to watch your golf, watch your golf on the PGA Tour. If you watch a live event and like it and want to watch it, watch it. But I got a news flash for you. You can do both. You can do both.

There are great players playing on both of these tours, and hopefully twenty twenty three will have a little bit more less craziness and we get back to just talking about golf as opposed to constantly talking about this battle, because there are great players playing great golf on the PGA Tour, there are great players playing great golf on live and maybe there's an argument to be made that golf, as crazy as it sounds, maybe we can get it back to being in a good place in twenty twenty three.

I think if cooler heads prevail, there's a better chance of that than it not happening. And I hope there's a day to where you know, the aggressiveness and the animosity on both sides subsides, and we can just talk about how great golf is and how great these players are, because I'm lucky enough to work with some of the best players in the world. And I've done that on the PGA Tour, I've done on the European Tour, I've

done that now on the Live Tour. And golf is golf, and anybody that thinks of where you're playing, the game is the game. And hopefully in twenty twenty three we can focus more on golf less on all of the craziness. Son of a Buich comes to you every Wednesday. Thanks for listening, Rate review, subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. We will see you next week.