Kira Dixon

Pebble Beach Pro Am and um loves golf. Golf has been a huge part of her life. And again she's one of those people. Um, it's one of the reasons why I wanted to do the podcast. Get people who aren't necessarily playing golf on TV um weekend week out, but our golf people. And I mean, what a story. I mean if I if I had told myself five years ago, I'd be doing a podcast and interviewing a former Miss America who's now interviewing people on Golf Channel,

in NBC and in the golf space. Um. You know that's the cool thing about all the people that you meet, um when you're get to be around golf like I am. And she's got a great story and uh, to to make that jump from pageants to now being part of the NBC Golf Channel crew. Um, it's cool story. UM. I think it's some good stuff and I think everybody will enjoy um listening to Kira. So, without further ado, let's get to the interview. Well, it's not every day

that my guest is a former Miss America. But the idea behind the podcast was to get people that are in the golf space, not in the golf space, in the golf space and love golf. Um. I gotta be honest with you, I didn't think i'd get a Miss America winner on the podcast. Ask HERA, UM, it's been Avery, there's a I mean, you're working for the Golf Channel,

now working for NBC and stuff like that. I mean, are you even surprised that kind of the trajectory that your career is going to where now you are firmly entrenched from being you know, Miss America to now firmly entrenched in the golf world. Yeah, if you had asked me five years ago, if this is where I would be I would laugh. Um, but here we are and uh, you know, I mean you get more into it. But Miss America really blows up your life and kind of,

you know, in the best way. So prior to you think you're going to do one thing, and then you get exposed to this entire new world of opportunities and doors that can be opened. And I happened to walk through the golf door and here we are and now I'm sitting down with you. What a life. Um. So obviously now you're part of You're you're involved with NBC, with Golf Channel, you're interviewing players, are at all the

tournaments competition to you're you know, interviewing professional athletes. How much of a competition or the pageants because as an outsider looking at looking into me, it just looks like an absolute free for all, it just looks like it's just it would be crazy. It would be a lot of competition, it would be a lot of kind of

you know, all this crazy energy. What's it like? Yeah, you know what, I really compare pageants to golf because you are competing against yourself and um, it's an individual sport and you can only blame yourself if you mess up. Okay, So, UM, golfers could could really find a lot of parallels to

walking across that stage because it's all about you. And I've always found that that's been an interesting thing for me to draw on of of how can I relate to players because I understand that UM certainly on on a on a basic level. But I mean, you know, people have seen ms congeniality or movies or cultural things about about pad. It's ensure there's some of that that

is very much true. But um, for the most part, this is just a really awesome group of women that comes together once a year from all walks of life, from all different backgrounds, UM, that end up really becoming amazing friends. At twenty five of the goals I competed with it, Miss America came to my wedding. So yeah, so I've got to ask you this question. Is the

pageant equivalent of you've got a one shut lead. You're standing there in the middle of fairway back back left pin, you snap hook at the water and you make triple or double and you lose. Is that is the pageant equivalent the the IRAQ statement, Is that the same thing? Yes, the onstage question is kind of a make or break it moment. It's that last plush to really show the judges that, like I, I can speak on national television or in front of whomever and be able to give

a good year and answer on this thing. And if you stand up there like a deer in the headlights, then it's probably not going to go well. Um. So yeah, that's definitely the triple boggy that you're trying to avoid. Also, I think in two it would be easy to look at I'm sure there is a segment of the population that looks at the Miss American Pageant is being you know, bad, bad for women and justifying women, you know, you know,

really really kind of tearing women down. As somebody thats going through this and there's someone that has probably made lifelong friends who are part of this world. What place in in in the current weird culture that we live in where everybody is so quick to try and cancel anybody U in two, what what where are pageants today? I mean, what what what does that world like? And where do you think they should be and where do you think moving forward they can be? Because the Miss

American Pageant is a huge part of cultural American history. Yeah, just celebrated its hundredth anniversary. It's crazy. Yeah yeah, Um, so I will explain why I did miss America and then you know how it's evolved to today. So as a kid, I loved to sing and dance. I love to be on stage. I loved anything involving a performance. And one day we got a flyer in the mail for like a local no makeup, very basic, just opportunity to put yourself on a stage. And my mom I begged,

my mom begged, beg, beg. My parents who are Russian immigrants, so they have no context for what this is. They have no idea. They moved here in nineteen ninety. Yeah, yeah, what was the not to get touch? What was the reason that your parents chose to leave the Soviet Union income to the former Soviet Union at that point or

was it still the Soviet Union at that point? That was called in nine believe, and then because I remember I was in college when we watched the Wall come down, you know, the whole kind of Soviet Union was so nineteen nine, parents say, Okay, we're gonna get out out of this situation, come to America. Yes, Uh, well, my dad's a surgeon in America now, but at the time he was a surgeon in Russia, and a surgeon in

Russia was getting paid less than a bus driver. Um. He they mean, they uh, this is a much you know, we can talk about that for for hours and hours. But they wanted a better life. They wanted to be able to live in a country where they could depend on food sources and education and you know, possible peace and not have to beg barter and steel for anything and everything that you have. So um, they were able

to get out. And I mean my dad wrote hundreds and hundreds of letters to doctors whose addresses not email addresses at the time, but physical addresses were listed in the back of like the American College of Surgeon's Medical Journal. And he wrote hundreds of letters to all of these doctors. A few of them responded, and one doctor Prince in Chicago, helped him get his piecea to come here. Um, and

Dr Prince came to my wedding as well. So my wedding was like, you know, big meeting of the minds of all these people of different of different parts of our lives. Um. But you know, they came here with absolutely nothing A couple of suitcases and no money. Some distant family took them in California. They then lived in Chicago.

My dad lived at a Y m c A for for months while he was trying to get his first research job, and got into a residency in Kentucky, a fellowship in Texas, and then finally a private practice and now um works for Kaiser in Oakland. But that's a whole aside of it grows up to be miss American. It's like the ultimate American dream. But you don't. That's one of those stories. And there are you know, millions in American history, millions of people who whose parents, whose grandparents,

whose great had that same experience. And so if somebody brought you a script and said, I'm gonna take down your mother and father's life. I'm gonna write this script and all of these things that kind of happened by chance a sidents. Look, you'd read the script and go, I mean that's not believable, right, I mean that that there's no way that could happen. It's what it actually really happened to your parents. Yeah, you can't make this

stuff up. So's it's wild that we ended up here that they ended up where they got to that I get to live the life that I get to live because of so much hard work and sacrifice, and that's certainly not lost on me. I have such a wonderful, charmed, privileged life because of what they did. Um, and yeah, it's pretty amazing. It's pretty amazy. So the end of this script, somebody's writing the script on your parents life and they say, I've got a great way to end

this this this movie. She grows up and she becomes Miss American, and you don't get the hell out of here. She does. She does, Okay, so I'll take you back to how this happened. So I convinced them to let me do this. Great We end up doing this like once a year till I'm sixteen, seventeen years old, and then, you know, we kind of go out of it. I go off to college and then and I decide that I want to go to law school. I get into Notre Dame. You know, I've finished taking me outside Dame.

I've paid my deposit. And at the time, I was living in New York, and I was like, you know what, I kind of missed that that part of my life. I have some friends still from from that age that have gone on and competed in Miss America Miss USA, and they are the largest provider of scholarships to women in the world. And I'm about to go to law school, so why not this will be fun while I'm still before I go off on this next big thing. So I compete once at Miss New York. I make the

top ten. Okay, well that's fun. But I'm gonna try it one more time. And if I win, great, I'll stay in New York for an extra year. I'll defer my law school acceptance. If not, I'll go straight to to Indiana and that'll be that. And I end up

winning Miss New York UM, which is awesome. Being Miss new York is the best thing ever because you're like writing the subway to appearances and being like, you know, doing the grit with the glamour and you know, fighting every day for appearances and being elevant because nobody cares about Miss New York and New York. There's like all these other things to pay attention to. It's a lot different to be Miss whatever other state. UM. So that's that's an education in itself. The two women that were

Miss America before me were also Miss New York's. The organization had never had a three pet or you know, three winners in a row from the same state, so it was statistically impossible for me to win, which is fine, and people would tell me that, and it took so much pressure off. So this is a great lesson for all your golfers out there. It took so much pressure

off being yeah, being results oriented. All I did was have fun and be myself and be relaxed and do do the things that I knew that I was going to be really good at and those were my strengths, and I let those strengths come out without putting so much pressure on myself to the point where it was crippling and I couldn't perform at my best. So I won because everybody else but a lot of pressure on themselves.

And it's also you know, different day, different judges could be a crapshoot, who knows um And Yeah, So the way that at the time, Miss America was produced by Dick Clark Productions. They produced the Billboard Music Awards, the American Music Ward Awards, American Country Countdown, Academy Country Music, La La La, and the deal was that Miss America would not only be at these red carpets, but present

at these shows, these huge national shows. So I went from being this little law student, hopeful grit, you know, writing the subway in New York to getting my hair and makeup done every day and having this you know, this insane life and you know, getting exposed to you know, and in this, America does a whole lot more than that. I went on a USO tour around the world to Afghanistan, Bahraine, South Korea, Diego, Garcia, which is a tiny island in

the Indian Ocean, and all these other places. I visited hundreds of children hospitals for Children's Miracle Network, um and blah blah blah, all these things in between. But I also played golf and I got invited to play in all these big celebrity programs, and you know, you can connect the dots and how that ended up to where

I am today. But at the time, I felt like they did such a great job of including Miss America in the pop culture landscape as a gold role model for women, as an advocate for causes that you care about, as um, you know, somebody that can grow up and have these really big dreams and actually achieve them. Um. In the organization has very much changed over the last

seven to eight years. And there are things about it that I still love, and there are things about it that I very much uh you know, don't necessarily agree with. But what it has given me is this incredible life and an opportunity and a platform. I wouldn't be sitting here with you today. We're getting to do the job that I get to do if I hadn't had those opportunities the insane growth. Um. So that is what I would say it can contribute to a woman's life now.

There is so much about the organization to unpack, whether it's you know, looking at it from from an image standpoint, or how people how it what it does too if you're like your mental health or how you look about like there's there's plenty of negative stuff that I still deal with on a day to day basis of just like yourself image or dealing with bullying online or how people would talk about you at the time, um, which

is something that I still deal with every single day. UM. But I'm here and I'm thriving and doing the best that I can. So that is a very broad to thousands of view of what the experience was like. I would imagine being a young woman being in the pageant world where it is competition. Um, I would imagine that world very much parallels to junior golf world, to where you have stage parents. I mean, I deal with that all the time. I deal with you know. I mean

one of the things that I always do. You know, I'll have a young a woman or a man come in, young kids, they're you know, fift and you know they're they're trying to play competitive golf, and I'll say, you know, tell me a little bit about your game, and the dad asks, and the dad answers, the mom answers, and the kids don't want to answer. And I always say to the to the to the kids, whether it's a guy or a girl, I said, why is he answering? I'm not asking your dad what what your game is like,

I'm asking you. And you can tell that there are certain kids to where no one asks so many questions. The mom and dad kind of run the show. The mom and dad are crazy, crazy involved, over involved. And then you can also tell, I would imagine from a pageant sample, you can tell the girls that are doing this because they want to do this, and they're doing

this because their mother and father wanted this. And I can spot the kids in a heartbeat that like golf, that want to be playing golf, that really really want to do it, and you can you can just tell, and you can see that they're doing it for their own reasons, whatever those are, um, and not doing it for the moment. Was the pageant world kind of like that where you had this group of parents that were

like super pushy, super aggressive, you know, the judges. My favorite year as I get this all the time, I get the kid that wants to play competitive golf. Um, played one year of college golf. The reason why he played didn't play more was the coach didn't like him. Um, so he never played on the coach played favorites and you know, um, you know hey my son. Yeah, he used to beat Jordan's feet and Justin Thomas all the time. Sorry, when was that? Oh when they were like nine and right? Yeah,

that was like it was twenty years ago. Is the pageant world as crazy as the junior golf world is? So yes? So similar? You can, um, you can spot it from a mile away, which I'm sure you can also do in junior golf. And this is also a funny parallel in my life because I played very serious junior golf at the time when my my dad was getting his fellowship done in Texas. So I know that life,

I know those parents. I have been there, um, and my parents almost kind of were a bit like that with golf, because you know, foreign parents are like, my child will do this, that and the other thing, and you will. You know, they wanted me to learn golf because they thought it would be very important business skill, and then it turns into like, oh, you know, we have to do all this with the accessories and the lessons in la la la la um. So that can

evolve very quickly. Um. But in pageants you can. So if you're genuine and like a normal person that you want to have a lunch with or drink with people like you, judges will, like you write, a few people pick up on on that nice energy. But the minute that you have that kind of put on facade or someone else told you to say this in your interview answers, which is very very clear you have this what you're you're putting on. We think people want to hear a performance.

Then immediately. It's like you can spot that from a mile away next a bye, and it very much indicates inner strength and inner ability to have to have the chops to be able to be miss America or miss whatever banana pudding festival, which I'm sure you can also find in. Does this person truly have the chops to to play golf on a certain level beyond what mom and dad are trying to market to me. So let's take a quick break to thank our partner for wellness.

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them with me on the golf course. UM. A lot of times when I'm out on tour, I don't have a lot of time to sit and eat. So these energy bites, a little coffee hit, a little bit of energy, um, all the good stuff, all natural and UM. If you haven't given those a try, check those out. They've given me a special code to share with some of a Butcher listeners. You can get off your order plus free shipping and a free starter kit worth thirty dollars for a limited time when you visit for Wellness dot com

slash podcast. That's spelled fo r w E l l n E s S dot com slash podcast and enter the code c H three at check out. It's their best offer right now, so give it a try. They even back every purchase with a sixty day money back guaranteed. That's again the code c H three at full Wellness dot com slash podcast. So now let's get back to the interview. I have a golfer. Were you as a kid and said you played junior? Did you play a

j g A stuff? Did you play you know, South Texas stuff, North Texas stuff, San Antonio Junior Golf Association, Babby? What was your okay? So? What was what was the handicap when you so, when you're really playing competitive golf. What ages were you? Um, let's see, I started playing, uh like every almost everyday goal from age seven to probably about twelve. We lack In Tara have these um these golf clinics um all summer long. So my parents would just drop me off at lock In Tara in

the morning and pick me up. That's where they used to place the s the San Antonio Pig. So now when I go back to San Antonio, which I've done in the last two years as a reporter at the Valero Texas Open, which is the only PGA Tour event I ever went to as a kid, I stand there as a reporter and I'm like, holy crap, Like what how did life to evolve like this? This is insane? Which is you know, put that into the rest my

book story or whatever that we talked about the beginning. Um, But to be honest, Cloud, I don't remember exactly my handicaps or how well I did. I remember there was this this girl named Samantha. I don't remember her last name, but she was always so good. She always beat me,

always always beat me. And I remember one time like I sunk this huge punt and as a twelve year old, I remember just like in the middle of the round, cheering and being so obnoxious about having finally beaten her, and like my mom being mortified that I was so excited that I had, you know, not shown this like sportsmanship moments, like a really good lesson for me to like, you know what, when good things happen to you, even

if it's really exciting, just like chill, it's fine. It doesn't mean anything really in the grand scheme of things. You can celebrate later. Um, but yeah, like those are the moments of the junior golf teaches you of like, you know what, you don't need to have these insane moments, insane celebrates at someone else's extense. Was the was the the impetus to get you involved in golf from your parents really the idea that this was going to be

a great business vehicle tool for you. Because golf obviously is a game that you can play from you know, being you know, nine years old to being you know, seventy years old. It's so it's a game that you can play for a lifetime. My parents thought that golf,

or they still do. They think that golf is an American rite of passage that it gets you into rooms and circles that you otherwise would not have access to, which was so brilliant of them, because Claude, I have been in meetings and rounds of golf with people I have no business talking to ever, especially at the ages that those meetings were happening at, only because I could play golf, because I could hang, they could give the

illusion that I'm like a certain level of player. You know, you don't have to actually score well, you don't have to go crazy. But as becase he had a couple of good drives, you know, you're getting your You've got your pace of playoff like great. They don't care. You're just out there to have a good time. And the relationships that I've created have given me this life that

I've got now. I mean the amount the amount of parents junior golfers that you know who brought their kids to me and said, listen, he's probably not going to be a great junior golfer, but the dad will say, you know, at fifteen, listen, I want him to be able. You know, I've done well in business, I'm golf is a huge part of my life. I want my son to to be able to play golf. At a decent level.

So that moving forward, after he goes to Harvard or Yale or whatever, illuminat school they think he's going to go to you know, then he'd used golf as a vehicle. And there was a kid that I taught, I told him as a junior. He just I think he went three or four years to Florida Gulf Coast. And then I saw a kid recently that was here to take a lesson with another one of the instructors and he said, hey, you remember this kid. I said, yeah, whatever happened to him?

And he said, yeah, he's in New York working, you know, on on Wall Street, and you know, still plays golf and you know, still using the golf thing. So played, and we hear that, I think that is more stereotypical thing in the golf world. For me, that's more of a stereotypical male thing as it is I feel. I mean, I have met a lot of young girls going yeah, our parents who said, my fourteen dog, you know, she's probably not going to play on the tour, but we

wanted to do this from a business standpoint. That's that's the reverse of what we normally hear. Yeah, but we should be hearing that more absolutely the time I meet parents that have young girls, especially get your girl into golf and don't let her quit. I quit in high school because it made me weird and different, and there were not many girls around me that played golf. I couldn't see on social media the cool things that Nellie and jess Quarter and Michelle we get to do because

of golf. So I just thought it was never really, at that age gonna give me much else. But I had played so intensely at a young age that I had those fundamental skills that when I did finally pick up on the back of my golf was going to continue to be such an important force in my life that when I was started again, it was very easy for me to pick up and immediately rep rewards from. But that is my number one advice to any parent.

It doesn't you know, your kids probably not can be nearly Quarda, but your kid is going to be able to really take advantage of this and have a leg up and competition either in business or whatever else um simply because she or he understand this game. So going back to what I was talking about earlier, you know, when I was growing up. Pageants were only about the way women looked. It was you know, it was only the physical side of things. So it's a swimsuit competition.

I mean I remember as a kid watching the swimsuit competition. You'd watch these things, um, and I could see that, you know now through the lens that we look back at, you know, from two we look backwards. That was incredibly misogynistic and incredibly kind of narrow minded on what people thought women should be. You know, let's just stand up, smile, put a swimsuit on. That was it. There wasn't you know, when I was growing up, there wasn't. There were only

when I'm fifty three, there were only three channels. Growing there's four channels. There was NBC, ABC, CBS and PBS. There wasn't cable, right, So anything that was big on TV and the Miss America pageant every year it was the Academy Awards, the Grammys, the Miss America Pageant, the Super Bowl, all of those things were part of our regular viewing as a kid. So I think it would

have been easy. And I think, you know, pageants and Miss America and people that were there, it was easy to kind of just say, yeah, you know they're not smart people. They don't and and so I think that is that has really changed. And you know, you look at someone like yourself. You speak three languages, You've traveled all over the world, You've done a listen, the pageants allowed you to see the world, Like you said, I

don't think people realize that I had. I had heard that before, but when you said that, I was reminded of that that the Miss American Pageant, the work that they do to help put young women into universities, into college educations that some people like, like sports for both men and women, will never have that opportunity because they can't afford it. Yeah. Completely. I mean I the scholarship money that I earned was around UM eighties and ninety

thousand dollars and I ended up not going to law school. However, I use that money to pay for a master's in journalism at USC Vannenberg, one of the best journalism schools in the world. UM, and it's that it's helped me get to where I am today with my career. UM. Yeah, you know, it's funny people people do see that the swimsuit competition, and UM, I competed in the swimsuit competition. They've actually now taken that away from from the competition,

which I kind of have mixed feelings about. But that's a whole, a whole different discussion. Um No No. So so seriously, as a woman who competed in a pageant, you said, listen, there was a swimsuit competition. They've taken that away. So where do you fall on that? Do you think? No? No, because I think that's really fascinating,

because it's hard for me. It's hard for men to say, oh, I think they should put the swimsuit competition into the paget because I can't have an opinion on that, right, I mean, I can't come down on either side of it. It's it's it's a really really fine one. I mean, I'm interested as a woman who's competed in it. The you're where you're coming from with regards to all of it, from the evening gown, from the interview, from the swim

the whole thing. Oh man. So um I in my experience, I enjoyed competing in the swimsuit competition because I go walked across that stage and it was such an empowering moment of the culmination of so much hard work of being an athlete in the gym, So it was an opportunity for me to to showcase what I had achieved with my body. UM. However, so that's that's one part

of it. The other part of it is it's it seems to reward a certain type of body and that other like other types of bodies are not competing on these stages because of the um. The people that that end up winning because of the perception of who UM is. You know, has a great body. You know, just because you look this way from from the gym, you know, somebody else might put in the same amount of time

in the gym and look completely different UM. And the so that there's also evening gown people wear makeup there. It's very much a an image thing because they've they've branded it as you are the face of an organization, you should look at a a certain way. But the way that the organization has gone now is they've removed the swimsuit competition. The evening gown portion I don't think is

really even there. It's not scored like you can you can win wearing in an evening gown, but you can also if you decide to wear a pant suit for the crowning. They they'll let you wear a pant suit, which is fine. Um. So much of it is also based on how how you can market yourself on social media, Like last year they had this whole campaign TikTok um, how you know, how how can you best use those

those skills? And and then a ton of it is also like a an impact statement where you're talking about you're basically giving a speech on whatever cause it is that you care about. So I don't know that they've done a great job of bridging the gap between like at the end of the day, it's still a pageant, right, Like at the end of the day, you can take away evening gown, you can take away some so you

can take away all those other things. And I'm still judging people based on their appearance in some way, shape or form, And that's just what it is. So if you don't agree with that, then like, you know, fine, but then Miss America should go away, Like it should just be like an essay contest or uh, you know whatever else. I don't know, So it's there at a certain point you have to be like accepting of what it is. And it's a pet at the end of

the day. In my lifetime, I can't remember. I can't remember how old I was, but it must have been. It's got to be in the nineties. It had to be in the nineties. There was a commercial. I want to say it was a bud Light commercial because I don't even know why. They did a how Miss American Pageant? It's like a parody of a Miss American pageant, you know, it's like the obvious choice or something like that. And so it was this guy, you know, the pageant guy.

This is this is a commercial that was on national television and it was like the guy's like, how how would you make uh, the planet a better place? And this, you know, this brunette girl goes, you know, investment tax credits for this, and then the next girl says, um, you know, education and stuff. And then at the end there's this blonde girl and she looked into the camera She's like, which planet and they at the end of

the commercialist then crowning her with the scene. I was like, in my lifetime, that was so commercial that an ad agency came up with and sold it to a major US corporation and they ran it on nighttime TV. It was unbelievable. Yeah. Yeah, I mean people love to poke fund it and people love to uh. You know what you mentioned at the very beginning was the the Iraq Girl. Um it. It is such an interesting thing that's entered,

like the American cultural lexicon. Um. And I think at a certain extent, like you just have to accept it for what it is. And I don't know that it has a place in the world today the way that it's being marketed now. Um, I'm not really involved with the organization anymore. I loved my experience. I love the friends that I have made, um, but it's yeah, it's complicated.

I don't think that there's a direct answer. Do I want Miss America to have a place in the world because of the opportunities that I got from the organization, Absolutely, um, But I don't know that we've figured out the exact formula for modernizing it and making it, um, you know, at least a more open forum, uh than than how it's kind of been in the past. Is limited to

certain body types, certain looks, certain whatever. Um. Yeah. So I mean I love, I love um Miss America as like a institution, you know, part of these these women we have like a list and email list serve of you know, however, many of us seventy of us, there's only been nineties something miss America's um the only years that they skipped the pageant or COVID and I think some of the World War through the World War two over One'm not sure. Um. So to be a part

of that history is pretty insane. UM. But I wanted to continue to have another hundred years. And I don't know that we've gotten to the point where we figured out the formula from modernizing it for those next hundred years. So to to be disperment God E B D TB D keep up on that check back soon. As a result of you being in Miss America and being Miss America, you got to travel. UM. I kind of heard through the grape vine, there's an interesting story about your husband

who was in the military. You on a trip. Um, I'd like, she did, I'd love you, I'd love you. I'd love you to tell the story because I she told, I was like, that can't be real. That's my mother. My husband was in the Marine Corps and the week the week before, let's see, he was Yeah, so he was deployed the to Afghanistan the day that I won

Miss America. So as he's on his way there, he stops in Germany for whatever transfer at the Air Force based in Germany to get to Afghanistan, and he checks his phone and he's got a million text message saying, dude, you're you're dating effing Miss America. So on the U. S O Tour that I mentioned earlier, UM, I found out that we were going to be going to Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan, which is where Andrew happens

to be stationed. And I was going on this tour with the Vice Chairman of the Joints Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral winifeld Um. It was his tour, so he's, you know, a high security individual in the military. So they told me, I, under no circumstances can tell anybody that I'm going on this tour. I was convinced UM the n essay or somebody was listening into my phone calls, because every time I would get on the phone to call anybody, I was hearing these clicks. I was like, Okay, somebody is

tapping my phone. For tapping my phone for sure. So every time Andrew and I would get to talk. I couldn't tell him because you know, maybe someone from a stand is listening to the call. I don't know that this is gonna be the whole thing, So I didn't tell Andrew that I was actually going to be at the base. He found out on his own because there's a poster posted in like the mess hall or something of who is going to be coming on the U

s O Tour. And he walks by the poster with one of his Marine Corps buddies because that's my girlfriend, and they're like yeah, okay, and he's like no, no, So everybody, everybody Andrews America, Yeah yeah, sure, sure ha ha. We get there and it's this I haven't seen him in six months, Like this is such a reunion, It's this American love story moment. And and Andrew, my husband, is like bleased. He ever wants to be on a stage,

is very shy, like it's not for him. They pull him up on stage in front of like five thousand Marines and Air Force people, army people or whatever, and this is like his worst nightmare. When I asked him about it, he's like, I blacked out for the entire thing. All the Marines in the back or just like cheering and screaming, and oh my gosh, it was like, yeah, there's a huge American flag behind. This was one of those moments of like, how did I end up here?

Seeing Andrew in Afghanistan? It just it was a while. It was the most highly supervised date of four hours that I've ever had. And now and now you're married, and now you you guys just adopted rescue dog named Steve. I mean, it's full circle. Now you've got a dog named Steve. What is life? Yeah, it's wild. We live in San Francisco. We just renovated a house. We're like real adults. It's crazy. Is he still in the military. What does he do now? Um? So he's got he

got out. I think last year he was had five years after duty five years there's reservist and um now he runs a defense tech software company, UM that works primarily on drones. Drive a Tesla, you guys live. It's just it's just such a stereotype. When people in San Francisco find out that I don't work in tech, they're like, oh, so interesting. You're telling me how you're one of those I've heard about those of those. Yeah, I've never seen one in the wild. But what what for? What venture

firm do you work for? Yeah? What round of seed funding are you on? So now you work in golf, talk to me about how you got into I mean, now you're at golf tournaments interviewing the best players in the world and you work for Golf Channel. Man, how does how does someone go from pageants to golf Channel? Yeah? So during the year I mentioned, I played in those

proems in the Golf Channel interviewed me. I think they actually broke down my swing in slow motion once and this was really unfair because it was so bad at the time. It can't it can't be too bad. You've made the cut twice, a T and T double of each program. I mean, yeah, I should have gotten much better. I've been grinding on the game. There are there are people that play that every single year, rich people, um athletes, actors, musicians who are desperate to make the cut and they

never make it. You've made it twice. It's really pretty good to tell you. Yeah. Yeah, So after the year, I thought I wanted to do entertainment news because of all the Dick Clark stuff that I've gotten to do. So I wanted to work for like entertainment Tonight or Extra or something like that, and moved to l a UM, and I was I was doing a ton of that type of work, all on a freelance basis, but to supplement my income, I was also hosting random golf pro

am events. And you know, there's a lot of big clubs in the LA area, so I was you know, people would hire me for you know, whatever charity fundraiser to to be able to host their golfing and then sometimes I would play. And I started to make a lot of connections in in that world. And I was also because I was working on this like entertainment lifestyle e type content that is very transferable to the golf space.

So I was doing some random freelance work for either Golf Channel or the Tour or whatever brand on some of that more you know, not not as newsy, but more like let me do this outfit video or I'll go and host this travel series. UM. And my first crack at real reporting was the U s g A was looking for a digital reporter for the US Open Shinnikock and I had never really done any true golf

news reporting, and they called me out of the blue. Uh. Through a random connection, I got a phone call from the creative director guy named John Mummer, and he was like, hey, you know this is I'm from the U s g A. We're looking for La La La. And I was like, is this a joke? Like do they know that this isn't really what I do? But okay, sure why not? UM? I was also in a time where I was like, my what am I going to do with my life? Maybe I should go to business school, but I'll give

this a shot. So I worked the U S open. They handed me a piece of paper on Gary Woodland and they asked me to write a report and do this report. And I was like, what's the report? What? How do I? How do I do that? So I

like looked up. I think it was a video of like Jessica Marksbury from Golf Magazine of something that she had done for them in the past, and I just like, you know, used her template essentially and like Gary Woodland owned the day today, La La La La, and I figured out how to very much fake it till I made it and was able to create this content for them that I was actually about what happened at the US Open as opposed to what people were wearing and

eating at the US Open. And I grew more and more with the U s g A doing all their championship coverage and doing some lifestyle e stuff as well. UM, and then eventually figured out I've always said that specificity in this business is really key to figuring out how

to get to the next stage. When in the minute that I figured out that I specifically wanted to be a golf reporter that I really love the day to day storylines of the PGA Tour, golf players that go through these insane ups and downs, how they get there, what makes them tick, everything that goes into the process, UM, is when I got that job with the Golf Channel and became a reporter, I also UM in the meantime, when and got my masters and journalism said also very

much underlined why I wanted to do what I do now. And now it's been two seasons. I just finished my last season, my last event at BMW Championship. I have a bit of time off. I can't believe it's been Um, it's already been two years. It's been an insane two years to be a reporter in golf. Um, but yeah, here we are. I mean, I mean does it. I

mean I did. I worked for Sky for I mean, I know you've done some stuff for Sky and when they first started bringing up the skycart, we were the first people to do the sky cart and then Amanda did the same thing at CBS. So but when we were doing that, they've done some stuff for Golf Channel um and done some morning drive stuff. And so my dad had worked for Sky and they said, hey, we're gonna have we're just some new contract with the pg Tour. We've got to have teams at every PGA Tour event.

Now Sky does. So they brought up the sky cart and they said, listen, you you can audition for it because we need bodies, right because we just you know, we've got forty some odd tournaments. Um. It took me a long time to get comfortable on TV because when you go on TV, especially when you do golf television, I think, um, you feel like you have to play a character on golf television, right because golf golf is so specific. You feel like you have to talk a

certain way. And I think the people that come on like yourself, who come from not a real golf background or even really a television background. I think that's why you know you've been successful. We've got a new crop of young people. You Amanda knows you. You all were able to just come on TV and just be yourself. And I think that that's a very that's hard to

do because you're trying. I always found like they throw me into commentary and I'd be like, I am just horrendous at commentary because I don't know what I'm doing. I got pretty good at doing the skycar, and I felt like I could interview people. I felt like I could do all the stuff. I didn't mind doing stuff live, but when they put me in commentary, I I found myself saying, Okay, I'm going to try and talk like a golf commentator as opposed to just talking like I

talked exactly. And I have had moments of, especially the beginning, thinking that I needed to talk a certain way or to be a certain way, to interview a certain way. And the moment that I was able to let go of that and just be myself and have a real conversation, which is like such a novel idea. Um reporting and interviewing got so much easier um, and I also have to recognize that, you know, if they want me to be there, if they're gonna hire me, then they want me.

They don't want you know, insert name. They're there paying for the specific product of Ci Dixon. And I need to accept that, be okay with that, and feel empowered through that and just be myself completely. And it seems to it's working out. Let's take a quick break and we are back. I'm always interested in the female reporter in the male dominated in the male dominated sports. UM

is very is very different. UM. I used to always we would when when Amanda and CBS started doing their you know, their cart, Um, it kind of got put right in the same areas as ours, and I'd be like, and I'd say to Amanda, they all want to give interviews to you. They don't want to give any interviews to me. Yeah, yeah, you know, it is interesting. UM, but I think that, you know, I'm just there to do my job and and I'm doing it well, Amanda's

doing it well. UM. You know, there's a certain like social aspect to it, especially with golf, but hey, if you know your sport and you know how to discuss it, you know they don't care, um, if you're a man or of They're just happy. They're just happy that they have the opportunity to have an interview because that means they played well. So for the most part, these guys will stop and talk to whoever and whatever because it means that things are going well for them on the

golf course. Uh. And if if I get to talk to them, that's also a privilege for me. So it's always it's I don't think people realize that the best part of your job is on Sunday when you get to interview the winner. Right, you know Jordan's speech, Hey, Georgan, you know it's amazing. But invariably they're going to ask you to interview somebody that's just the last four holes coming down the stretch and throw away an opportunity to

win their first tournament. And I don't think the fans and people that watch golf that on TV that don't understand how TV works, is they throw these players they don't want to talk, right, that's just the last thing that they want to do. You've you've got to stand there and ask them questions. It is. It can be a really awkward thing because I don't also think the fans realize they've literally come it's ten minutes from the last time since they come off. The poles signed their card.

The winners are elated, But the guys that you have to interview sometimes that I didn't get it done, that had an opportunity to win. I mean you can see them, they're they're driven with sweat. They've just come off the golf course. That that's a tough one. Oh yeah, you're just describing it gives me like the hejs. It's like, I don't do you do the same thing that you apologize, Hey, I'm sorry. We have to I'm sorry I have to do apologize because they know the deal, right, Like they

know that this is part of the deal. So I just say, like, we're going to get you out of here as quickly as possible. I'm I try not to, you know, I'm not going to belabor the point that you just lost. Maybe maybe max three questions depending on what they say. Usually keep it to two. I mean, my first interview post round interview with winner and loser ever was at riv the year that Max Homa beats

Tony Fine in a playoff, which is already insane. It's like an instant classic, right, Like Max misses this shorty to have to get into the playoff, Tony plays out of his mind and I So we interview Max first, and I'm I'm just managing the nerves of doing this for the very first time, and so I you know, get to be a part of this amazing, you know,

life changing dream moment for Max. And then go and talk to Tony who it's like a thing now people are talking about I'm not able to finish the win and the tournament to be able to actually raise the trophy. And he was so gracious in defeat and so understanding that this is part of the deal, this is just what what he needed to do. He gave me a wonderful, very nice, eloquent answer. And that was that same with when you know Patrick Cantley loses to Jordan's speed at

the RBC Heritage. You know we have to we have to talk to Patrick, like in the little tunnel of where they get they go to to get into the car to leave, like he stops answers two questions. Great, moving on. I mean there's so many moments of just like they get it. Um, it sucks, it's uncomfortable, for all parties, but they owe it to the viewer and the fan to do it. That's why they have to do it. Um, they don't always do it. There there are some that don't don't do it, and that's up

to them. Um. But getting to do the winner interview for me is always so special because it is in a huge responsibility because it is incumbent upon you to facilitate a moment in a very high pressure, high emotion piece of of time and their lives. They will always associate you with that moment, so you must make sure to facilitate a positive, great way for them to be able to express the emotions of of winning on the PGA Tour or wherever. So um, yeah, those are my favorite,

you know, high stakes. Just I walk away from that with adrenaline, in so much excitement of this is what I do. This is so much fun. So there's parts of this job that can be really monotonous and long hours and long days whatever, but when you get to that moment and it's great, you walk away feeling like, oh my god, I just crushed that, Like it's everything I always liked when I was doing the skycart because

you know, they bring the players for interviews. You know you're in you're in that last hour of the tournament and you've got your producer, you're watching the golf. You're trying to figure out who you're going to get for interviews. You're like, Okay, if he if he Bertie Celestry, holes, we've got to get him. And then you know you've got to get him in a very very quick period of time, and then they get out and then somebody us. But I always found that last hour to be a

lot of fun. It's chaotic. You're trying to get the requests in, You're trying to run around, and then they keep bringing them and you're like, Okay, we're doing this now. Okay, we're gonna do this now. And that was the part of it. I actually are always liked um. I think one of the dirty secrets about TV. Unless you're Trevor Immelman or Tony Roma and they're grooming you to take the seat where you're on camera, they don't really give

you a lot of training. People people say to me, you know how, what kind of training you have for Scott? I said, listen, believe it or not. One of the ways that you're gonna stay on TV is you show up on time, you don't cause really any drama with the crew or the lighting, and everybody likes you, and you don't mess up on air. If you do those three things on a consistent basis, they'll invite you back.

Because the amount of people that cannot mess up on air when it's live, that don't get flustered, that don't show up on time because I don't think people that come out. I found a lot of um, the influencers that come into the Gulf television space that I've worked with in the past, they're so used to doing everything on their own to themselves. They don't realize that Okay, no, no, Now there's a guy operating the camera, and there's five

people for lighting, and there's producers. There's no editing. There's there's no editing. You've got to do it live and it's not just about you in front of the camera. It's about this whole thing you're telling. Yeah, it's a completely different skill. I will say NBC did a good job of, um, you know, sitting me down and just describing exactly know what this was going to be like.

Lah lah lah. They had me um speak with a very seasoned reporter that took me through a bunch of examples of the way that you know that she phrases questions. But at the end of the day, even with the master's journalism, the only thing that will truly prepare you for TV is reps. And when the light goes on, when the light goes on, some of the better come

out of that mouth. Um. You know, you can theorize about how it's going to be, so many people can walk you through, but the feeling, like the inner body feeling of live television of millions of people watching, is something that cannot be taught, and it will only come with reps. And you can either do it or you can't. And it's not meant for everybody. But when you do master it, it is the most exhilarating thing on the

planet to to me at least. Um, And look, I have messed up so many times I have, um, you know, said the wrong number, said the wrong stud And the golf audience will not go not like anything by the golf. Social audience loves any mistake of human you know, hey, hey, you know Tony, it was a great put on fourteen and it was a put on fifteen you immediately as soon as he walks away, you your your social feed

just goes yeah, nice going, idiot. It's like, come on man, totally, totally, totally, totally, or or if you phrase something to the golfer themselves that and they don't like the way that you phrased it, they will in the interview call you out for it, and you're like, I'm on television, bro, like give me trying to make you look good. I'm trying to just

to help me out here. So there's just so many of those little nuances and things that you don't think to think about ahead of time, and it takes years to understand. And those nuances changed from player to player. Your tone of voice, the way that you the way that you phrase something to them, the way that you bring up something from the past or whatever. Like you know, one player might react to question with this wording um, but if you use the same wording for a different player,

they'll give you a one word answer. So you have to then also understand, like you know, from a field of a hundred and fifties six people, how you're going to to make sure that you're catering this to every single athlete that you speak to and that just takes time. So anyone that's interested in reporting, just keep in mind that it takes a lot of time. And um and just reps is year, Like my second year at Sky, they threw me out at Deutsche Bank during the playoffs.

They threw me out and they said we're gonna throw you on course and I was like, grand, I've never done on force reporting in my entire life, never done it. And so Rory was in the group. Um, I had me out there. They weren't really coming to me a lot um and so a couple of times they'd come to me, and so Rory middle, I mean, we're now on I think we're on fourteen or fifteen. It's late, you know, we're going off air. We're just gonna follow

them in. So um, and it's a Thursday, and so we're out on the course and so um, Rory's the military hits one over the green and I don't go down there to check the lie because I'm like, they haven't come to me at all. So they're like, and he's standing over he's getting ready to hit, and I was like, and I panic, and I was like, Okay,

he's hit that. I was like, Oh, that's that needs to slow down, that that's gonna roll all the way off the green, and my reporter Dave Randall says, to be in my ear, yeah, we can see that, and and so they go away, and I immediately pushed back and I was like, yeah, that's all that training you gave me, Like I don't know what I'm doing. Yeah, yeah, I mean there's I fully empathize with that feeling of like oh crap, like what did I just say? Um

and whatever. It's part of the learning process. And the people that I've worked that I work with have been really great about giving me feedback. I am, um, probably really annoying about constantly calling people and asking them for for feedback um. And and when you ask for it, they'll give it to you. They're not necessarily just hand things out willy nilly, but I uh yeah. I bother my producers and everybody back in Stanford to constantly let me know if things are good, if they're bad, what

can I change? La la la. I saw Jim Nance at Wimbledon this summer and we were talking Trevor and woman who's one of my very close friends. I worked with Trevor when he was a player and now Trevor's going to take um uh Nickleson's seat at at CBS.

And I was talking to we were having lunch and I was talking to Jim about it, and he was saying, you know, the thing I love most about Trevor is from day one, he would any time he was on air, he would he would see me and he would say, Hey, anything that you could give me advice, any pointers and

stuff like that. And Jim said, to watch Trevor's kind of rise from when he started as as a player, trying to figure out if he wanted to play, then going to TV to where he gets the big chair now next to an icon in in you know, sports broadcasting a guy like Jim nance Um, I don't think the fans realize how much homework and how many reps you're trying to get. It is like a sport. Being on TV is like a sport. The more the more times you're in the hunt on the back nine on

Sunday as a player, the less you're gonna panic. Your first time, you're gonna panic. Lie, TV, they're throwing a bunch of stuff at you. You've got to do a bunch of interview like it, and it happens sometimes so fast here it does it You're like, are we done? Are we all fair now? Because it seems like it happens, but it is. It does take reps and practice to get comfortable. Because I think the great people on TV, guys like Jim nance Um, guys like Dan Hicks, they

make it look so easy. I mean, they just make it look like and people don't realize how hard that job is to make. Being on air and telling stories and all of that seems so easy. I've had a conversation with Jim about that as well, and he this is so Jim, he said, the way he describes what it's like to sit in the booth and talk about it is he because it's just like poetry, like like

freestyle poetry, which it really is. But to be able to react, not to just you know, everybody can say, okay to twelve, the approach shot for Tony Final, whatever, But to be able to react to breaking news or crazy situation or a wild story or a moment within seconds and to be able to put it eloquently in a way that moves people is just It's an insane skill.

To Rico is also really really good at Mike's amazing, and it's it's mind blowing that they're able and like the retention that they have on the stats and they you know, of course there's people that are that are helping them out with some of the specific numbers. But sometimes, you know, Torico will be like, and how could you forget you know, in two thousand and five that la la la, Like, uh, yeah, I'm sorry, Mike, I don't

have that in my back pocket. But um, you know, from a reporter standpoint, you have, you know, some breaking news happens. You have to walk the range and convince guys to talk to you about maybe something that they haven't even looked at or seen or whatever. And they're going to stand there and be on live television and like make sure that they are comfortable with knowing that you're not going to put them in about situation. You're just trying to get the facts. You're just trying to

get reaction. And that's another thing with you know, I'm

sure that you run into all the time. It's just your relationships and developing your credibility with people on tour, on the range or whatever that they know that they'll talk to you and that everything will be okay in terms of it's it's on the record, if it's on background, if it's whatever, um And that takes time of just establishing because when I first started, especially I first started with when COVID was very much um you know, everyone

was masked. You couldn't even go near at players. So it's very hard to report in golf when no one knows you, and then they also cannot physically speak to you because they're so far away. I also think professional golfers, certainly on the men's sides, are a little bit like dogs. They'll they'll kind of look, they'll look at you, they might bark a little bit, but if they see you enough times, then they'll come over and they'll they'll kind of there's a familiarity to where where a lot of

times they can be stand off. Two years in um um interviews that you like, because obviously when I was doing interviews, if there were people that I knew, people that I had good relationships with, people that I felt comfortable with off camera, I think not always shines strong. Are there players that you look forward to interviewing? Are their players that you say to yourself, I mean, let's be honest. There are guys that are good interviews that think that way, um, and then there are got me.

Rory is a great interview. Rory likes to talk, Jordan's speech likes to talk. DJ doesn't like to say much. Brooks doesn't like to say much. Right, Um, Who are the interviews that you really really like? And have there been interviews that you've done to where when you walk away you have that moment where you both look at each other and you go, that was really good. Yeah, Yeah, I've had. I've been lucky to have a lot of them, and you mentioned a few. Jordan's speek is amazing to

talk to. Will always give you a thoughtful, insightful answer that's real. Um. Rory obviously will always do that. John rom if you ask him good questions, we'll give you amazing answers. Um. Zala Torus has become one of my favorites to always talk to, always willing to give genuine, real insight. Um. I'd say, you know, in terms of interviews that have been my favorite over the last few years. I interviewed Joseph Bramlett last year after he won the

Corn Ferry Tour Championship. And this is a guy that has had, you know, five six years of insane health issues with his back, battling back to finally get to a place where he can be competitive and professional golf, and he wins the Corn Ferry Tour Championship and it's this moment of just it was overwhelming to know how much he had fought through to get to that place of a winner interview and to be the one that facilitated that moment that emotion for him was was so

it was so incredible. It was such a special thing of like this has truly affected and changed to this person's life. And I walked away from that just feeling like, oh my god, like this is this is why I do this, This is the best thing ever. I love this job. I had a similar thing with j T Posting at the John Deer Classic this year. He uh just was so raw and emotional about how hard this is and was able to share that in a um just a really genuine way that you don't always get.

And then I had a great one with Rory after he won the c J Cup. I think it was his twenty win, which gives you lifetime status. Yeah, and it was right after they had lost the Writer Cup. There was still a lot of emotion associated with that. So it just it felt like a a really poignant moment in his career, an insane career, that I could have a small piece of being a part of that history. Um So if those are the ones off the top of my head that come to mind of like, Okay,

this was really special. Lastly, you said that you know, one of the things that you have to do is is is be able to react to breaking news stories. Um, the golf professional landscape right now, I was like a lot, but it is. It is as crazy as it's ever been. I mean, obviously, Um, you're on the p g A Tour. You're working for Golf Channel and NBC, who are very closely aligned with the PGA Tour. There is this massive

divide right now. I've gone the opposite direction. Right now, the only players that I currently am working with are playing on the live tour. So it's like I've gone to and entire as as as you know, and I think it's hard for people to to realize that aren't around it like we are. There is a giant PGA tour ecosystem. There is a real living, breathing ecosystem that

is the p g A Tour. And now that you know, I would say that that's been I guess I guess maybe a lot of people on the PGA tour think LIB has threatened that um, but it is for for those of you that are in media, that are on the front line, it's I mean, you don't have to search for things to talk about. No, no, it's so funny. Every week it's like, oh boy, like, what's what's those

the breaking storyline this week? So like the week of three m was the week that um, I believe the lawsuit news was announced that this that you know I watched, I watched you going up, so you know, the three players announced that they're gonna be um um suing for temporary restraining order and then the anti trust suit and

all that stuff. And it was one of those exhilarating, you know, adronaline moments of like, Okay, we gotta track down sound, we gotta get reaction from people, um so that we have something to put on the show, uh, and also some information, some actual concrete facts about what is happening, what what is the kind of legally is behind this that I can say in layman's terms, um, without you know, pretending to actually understand what the legal

ramifications of all these things truly are. UM. And then you know, this week it's last week at the BMW Championship. It's this secret meeting of twenty two. So every week, like are now running joke with the producers is like what are we going to talk about this week? And it's it's honestly really exciting when we get to just talk about birdies and bogies because the other stuff is like, now it's just guaranteed that we're gonna be talking about

some breaking news. I mean, you know, you kind of you have to laugh at it because otherwise it's just, you know, it gets very serious and bogged down and like the ramifications of what this is going to have, the you know, the impact on professional golf if you think about it, like two years, five years, whatever down the line, like who knows what all this is going to look like. But in the meantime, like we're just

like in the trenches trying to find the facts. It seems like they change not day by day but hour by hour, and just get the facts to the people. But honestly, on a serious dark here. Have you noticed that since Lived has launched, since they've had three tournaments, now, have you noticed a difference on the PGA Tour from a vibe standpoint pre we Live? Because you know, I was talking to my dad about this, um, you know,

privately a couple of weeks ago. I was like, I just come back from Bedminster, and I was like, if you you know, they had the Big Live had their Big Player party at Gotham Hall and downtown Manhattan. Nelly's on stage, you know, Donald Trump's. I mean, it's just and I'm saying to myself, Okay, if I can go back in time, and I can go back to the Masters and say, okay, guys, I've gone forward in time, I'm gonna take you with you, take me, I'm gonna take you with me. This is what the third Live

tournament is gonna look like. These are the players are gonna be played and and I guarantee you go. There's no there's no chance and help, there's no way this happens right. And I think it's it's interesting that for all the yes, there's a ton of negative stuff, but I think we are at a really interesting time, not only engulf but I think we are in a really interesting time in in sports, um, you know, with what's happening.

I mean I've gone to all the live events and three of them, and people ask me what they're like, and I say, um, either feel like I'm part of we work and this is there are times where you're like you're listening to all the extraneous people talk and say, there's no way this can work. There's no way this

can work. It won't last, it won't last. So as someone who has you know, been a part of the live experience and had had spent you know, the majority of my you know, professional life working on the PGA Tour, it's a completely different thing. And I constantly am saying to myself, am I part of a dot com startup that won't work? Or am I at the start of Google? And this is going to turn into something that nobody

could envision? And I think it is a fascinating time for for all of us that are involved in professional golf, regardless of what side you're on. Um. You know, my dad on my podcast recently and he said, you know, it's live in the PGA Tour like our politics, right, they just keep getting further and further apart as opposing to try and come to the middle and say, okay, let's figure out a way to work this out. Because I can tell you that hera as much animosity as

there there seems to be. When we all went to the Open Championship, I saw all the same people and I didn't see anybody get treated any different. I mean, Rory rocked up next to DJ, put his balls right now next to him on Tuesday and today, what are you guys up to? We talked him for twenty minutes and he said, hey, what are you doing? And he said him going to play practice found and Roy said hey, can I join you? And we went yeah, because that's what we always do. I mean DJ probably plays twenty

twenty times a year in practice rounds of Roy. Yeah, yeah, Well, I think the Open Championship is also before a lot of the UM. Not to say that that Rory and DJ wouldn't still have that interaction, and I don't know. I couldn't tell you I'm not I'm not them, um. But as far as a vibe check, I GA, you can say on the PGA tour, UM, I have noticed a ton more. You know, this has gone from like hush hush whispers to like everybody's talking about the random

breaking news or whatever the story of the day is. Um. And it also seems, you know, just based on all the changes that have been announced, people have gone from really thinking about golf. This is just my impression that you know, people think about golf is a very individual sport. I just put my head down and play. That's what

I need to focus on. And it's changed from like, Okay, now we need to be advocates of our sport, and how are we going to pull our power and all come together and bring our influence into one thing so that we can create this product to be what we what we envisioned it to be, and to make all these changes and make them quickly. UM. And I don't know that that's ever really happened. And I mean, I guess in the sixties it did with with Arnie and Check,

but not to this level. So that has been fascinating. Um. There's probably guys that have sat in meetings and had conversations that they've never ever thought that they would ever do things like that because all all they've ever done is hig golf ball. Um. So it's it's interesting to see that evolve UM and see people take more more agency over the league that they play in or the

future that they want to have. UM. But yeah, I mean you sit in a I mean I sat in player dining at one point at BMW and there's like all these little groups and everybody's chatting away, and like it's just you know, that fascinating to you know. Care. One of the things that I can do find interesting though, is I've been you know, my dad played the PGA Tour of my grandfather won the Masters, So I've been

around professional golf literally my entire life. I was told that two weeks after I was born, my dad was still playing the tour. So I was in the back of a station wagon and I was on tour. So it's really been the majority of my my adult certainly you know more about this world. And but what I find really interesting is just for all of the supposed negativity that this whole thing has happened since lives come in,

it is galvanized people to act and band together. The live people of galvanized and feel like they're part of something that they're all going to band together, that there's a brotherhood on the Live Tour now and out of nowhere, all of a sudden, you're getting the best players on the PGA Tour to say, Okay, we're going to commit to playing these tournaments. You know, these guys are all individuals. They practice when they want, they play when they want,

they play which tournaments they want to play. And I think one of the positives to come out of it is as as many negatives that have come out of it, is somehow, some way through all of this turmoil, a bunch of individuals on both sides are saying, hey, listen, let's get together and talk, as opposed to just doing our own things. Because when I when I grew up, co chain on the European Tour, the European Tour was

like that. Everybody got on the same planes, everybody got in the same cars, everybody stayed at the same hotels. We all ate together, we all traveled together, we all went to the course together. And then you would go to the PGA Tour and the joke was Phil's getting on his jet, bj is getting on his jet, Um Tiger is getting on his jet, nobody's sharing jets, nobody's

doing anything, and everything was really, really individual. And I think it's been fascinating to watch not only the guys on the Live band together, but as a result, you're getting guys on the PGA tour now to say, hey, listen, what can we all do for the greater good of our tour? And I think this would have never happened.

Something like this wouldn't have come along. Well, I don't see them sharing jets anytime soon still cloud, but but um, it is interesting to see them come together and build a better product because there there were things that that needed to change and that we're lacking in the product, and and things that you know, just from a lifestyle, lifestyle perspective for them, from a length of season or feeling that you're if you're not playing certain fall events

that you're then way behind infedex cut points or you know, all the minutia of all those little things. So and it's gonna be better for the for the golf fan, and it's going to be better for the viewer to be able to see these guys come together a lot more often. Um. I wish that there's a world in which, you know, I could see some of the guys that have gone to Live play against the guys that are on the PGA Tour on a more consistent basis, because I love those storylines. I love the kind of clashes

that come with that as a golf fan. Um, I don't know that we are going to see that outside of majors and depending on you know how all these the world ranking points, everything shakes out and la la la um. So that is a bummer for the fan. However, Um, you know, I new storylines will emerge, whatever it ends up looking like, and I'm very curious to see how it all ends up. Is like the bridge to all these new things really go into effect from the PGA

Tour side. Um, it's fascinating. Well, I think, Um, the good news for you is I think you'll continue to have a lot of amazing things to talk about. Um, it's been great to talk to you. So it's hard to kind of watch kind of where you started a couple of years ago. Get now, the last question I have to ask you, because I know everybody listening wants to know how many times a year do you wear the Miss America set? How many times a year do

you put it on? And so I don't wear this, I really don't ever but I just realized I'm sitting at my desk and what I have here as a decorative item. But I'm going to show you, oh the crown. Look at that. There is the crown that is so good just just lying around decorative items. This is actually an extra. The real real one is upstairs in a glass box in my living room. But this is my decorative desk paperweight. So this is like me giving an interview to somebody, go, you know what, you know what

I just happened to have here? It's I just got the green jacket. It just happened. It happens to be hanging around when the other this one it's got, it's broken a little bit right here. This was the one that was like if the other one wasn't cleaning, this is the one I would there. All right. I mean, obviously no one's going to see this because the podcast, but can you go ahead and put it on for for us? Okay? How do I look? What do you think?

I mean? I mean, I know everybody listening can't see it, but I mean you look like you look like a Miss American winner debate. Yeah, I always have my invisible crown on these days. But Yep, there it is. You're great to talk to you. Hopefully, UM, you can all come together and we'll get to see um all you peeps on the PGA Tour more often, because I mean, I'm sure you're in the same boat. Sure there's players, caddies, other people, and you're like, I don't get to see

those people anymore. They're gone. Because I feel like that. I mean, there's so many people on the PGA Tour, caddies, players, coaches that were such a we you know, part of the tour championships. The first tour championship in Atlanta that

I've missed in over a decade. It's it's it's crazy. Yeah. Yeah, there's definitely players that that I no longer see in a regular basis, And I'm like, man, that was a bumber, especially because you're you know, I just getting to this point where like we've got a good thing going here, Like I know I can go to you for good information. A lot another gone. Um, So yeah, that part is sucks, um, And I like the animosity and things like that are

also not not nice. So I hope that everything works out and everyone will keep happy and there will be world peace. We look forward and we'll look forward to you, Kira bringing us all of the break Yes, we'll do. Please tune in. Thanks for talking to Terry, appreciate it. So that was a really cool interview with Kire Dixon.

And listen you if you're a golfer and you're watching golf on TV, you're going to see her interviewing players, UM at all the big events, and uh, I think she's doing a hell of a job and really cool to see her and make that jump from um, you know, probably an industry that you would never think would mix with golf, but UM, I really enjoyed talking to her, and she's somebody that you know, when I'm on the PGA Tour and I see her, you know, we talk and it's always fun to see what she's doing. So

good stuff from her. So questions, let's see what's the difference between a corn ferry player and a p G A tour player? UM, I mean, I think the gist of that question is what is the difference between people playing on tours um that aren't where they want to be? And then you know, the holy grail of making it to the p G A tour. Um. You know, I was lucky enough this summer to go to Wimbledon and

got to watch Novak Djokovic in the quarterfinals. Lost the first set, and um it got tight in the second set, and every big point afterwards that Novac needed to win, he won that point. And the player that he was playing. UM is as talented as he is, hits it as hard as he is, has the shots that he has. But when it comes down to it being able to execute the right shot at the right time, not only

in tennis, not only in football, not only in basketball. UM. I think that's one of the things I think because the playing field and golf is so much different than other sports. UM from a talent level. I mean, listen, when you watch basketball, UM, you're sitting even if you played basketball, you know, not many people are lebron Not

many people have the physical size of other sports. So it's easy to think that the playing field is very, very on what level in golf because a lot of golfers look the same, a lot of golfers have a lot of the same skills. But at the end of the day, when you have to make shots, when you have to hit the right shot at the right time, when you need to make a downhill left or right put for six ft for par on the fifte hole

with a one shot lead. Um. In my experience in watching and again I've been so lucky in my career to be around some of the best players in the world. They have the ability at the right time to execute the right shot. And I think when you watch golf on TV, we see it every year. You will see a player that isn't necessarily a household name has an opportunity to win a golf golf to a great example this year, um Mito Pereira mean, I mean Mito. He's

playing unbelievable golf. He was on the podcast. Um, he has a chance to win the p GA. He's on the last hole. All he needs to do is hit the fairway and he hits the ball in the water and doesn't get in of the playoff. Um. You have to be able to execute. And I think, UM, once you get to the PGA tour, Um, everybody is talented, right, I mean, everybody is a great player. Um, if you make it to the corn Ferry Tour, Um, that's a

hell of an achievement. But being able to execute, and also I think, um, one of the big differences is um, not making dumb mistakes. And again, to use a tennis analogy, unforced airs and tennis. I think a lot of players, when they're trying to get to that next level, they make dumb mistakes. Um. You've heard me talk about on the podcast before, making double boghies, triple bogies at the wrong time. So, UM, I think executing is what separates

the good from the great. Let's see one of the top three things teenage kids should be working on most likely in the game and um, and likely don't UM, I mean, listen, I think there's a lot out of things. UM. I think junior golfers You've heard me talking about it on the pod before. UM. I think junior golfers tend

to practice what they're good at. UM. I go, you know when I watch junior tournaments, when I work with junior golfers, if they're a good driver of the golf ball and they're warming up, UM, they're gonna be hitting a ton of drivers. UM. If they're a great putter, they're gonna be on the putting green. If they're great in the short game, they're going to be in the short game. So I think, UM, again, it's I say this all the time, UM, practicing what you're not good at.

And I think you know, juniors and teenagers specifically tend to gravitate towards the things that they're proficient at. UM it's they're comfortable with. It's it's kind of a comfort level. UH. They don't like to practice things that they're they're not good at, that they're not proficient at. So UM, practicing your weakness is more than your strengths, I think is huge. UM. I think most junior golfers UM spend a lot of time on the drive being range and need to spend

more time playing golf. So to me, the number one thing that I would tell you a teenager is play more than you practice. UM. I think you've got to learn how to play. There is an art to playing golf. UM. And just so everybody thinks that I don't make these UM questions up, we have a question from my dad b Charman. He says, who will be the next UM Jump to Live Which player? UM? Dad? If I knew

that answer, UM, I'd be making money on that. I do think that in the off season UM Lives the Live Tour is going to end in three weeks UM and doesn't restart until kind of February. Maybe. UM, I do think that you're going to say, I don't know this. UM. I hear the same kind of rumors that everybody hears. UM, But I do think that you're going to see um more players go. UM just fact to life. I think anybody that thinks that Live is going to fold anytime

soon is UM. They either want that to happen and that's the narrative they're trying to push, or UM their naive because they just aren't aware of what's actually happening. And UM, I think you are going to see players go. I think you UM, I think we will be surprised, as as as fans and as people that watch golf. I think you'll be surprised. Maybe it's someone that does go, but UM, I think players are going to go. And UM, I think Live is going to continue to UM do

what it does. And I think the PGA Tour is going to continue to do what it does. And I might be in the minority, but UM, I think they can both be true at the same time. And UM, listen, if you're a fan of the p g A Tour and you're a fan of the players that play on the PGA Tour, and that's what you want to watch. Watch that. If you like what the product it lives, and you like the players playing at that, watch that. I I believe there's an audience for both. And I

just don't. I fundamentally just don't get all this animosity as to what's going on. So Dad, I wish I knew the answer that question. Sadly I do not. UM listen. I really want to thank everybody for listening. UM. We shut down the pod in the summer, came back with my heart radio and really excited to be back doing it. And UM, I can't thank everybody enough for listening. UM rate, review, subscribe.

But wherever you get your podcasts, and if you've got people that you know love golf and our interested in golf, UM tell them about the pod and we'll keep getting good guests. And I'm working on some UM some guests which I think we're going to be able to get the next month, which I think everybody is going to enjoy listening to and will definitely be UM thought provoking. Son of a bisch comes to you every Wednesday. Thanks for listening to everybody and We will see you next week. He