It's the Son of a Bush podcast. Your host Claude ha Rman. My guest this week is a nineteen year old sophomore at the University of Iowa. You just lost in the finals of the us AM. It would have been much cooler to say, no, you won in the finals of the us AM. But I mean it was a hell of a summer for you. I mean what happened. You know, obviously, you played great at Iowa last year as a freshman, led the team in scoring average, played in every tournament as a freshman, which I think is
a Division one college golfer is very very rare. Your stroke average was great, you had a bunch of top tens. But you went into the us AM I think ranked five hundred and sixty and in the Wagger rankings and you got to the finals. So it's been about just a little bit under a month. Have you had time to decompress and have any kind of reflection on what you actually kind of did. I'm second at the Porter Cup this summer, so that was a huge stepping stone.
I think the year in the development. But I mean the USM is you know, it's close to being a major for you know, you look at the names on that trophy of everybody who's wanted. But if you had a chance to kind of take stock of what.
Happened, Yeah, I just want to say thank you so much for having me on. This is awesome. It means a lot. I don't know. I really haven't reflected yet, to be quite honest. I mean, I mean, yeah, my dad sent me a thing, and so my parents, my mom and Dana. It's just like you get to eat, like you see the stuff on Gulf Diye. Just it's like here's the Masters field, like going into twenty twenty five. It's just like you see your name and it's just like, huh,
that's pretty interesting. But it's like, yeah, I mean it was a ton of fun. I feel like talking to you and talking to Brett, like everybody around me, I have like a really awesome team, which means the world who all believe in me, probably more than I believe in myself at times. So I feel like for me, I finally believed in myself the way I should and it kind of reflected as as belief. But I guess in the US.
Yeah, I mean for everyone listening that doesn't know if you make it to the finals of the US Amateur, you get into the Masters, and the following year you get into the US Open. I want to go back to the beginning. Your dad was a golfer. He played in the US Junior. Your stepdad, Data Fryes, a golf course architect, designed Aaron Hills where Brooks won his first major championship. I was there your stepdad, Dana. He took you to that tournament. You met Rory McElroy. You were
playing hockey at that point. How old were you back then? I mean, I'm bad at math, so.
I think it was nine in twenty seventeen ten.
I wasn't even going to guess because I would have failed. So you're nine years old, you meet Rory McElroy out of major championship. What was that like? I mean, he obviously you knew who he was, but how did that come about? And what was that experience like for you?
Yeah, so he missed the cut, which is kind of funny because somebody still gave me time. And Dana met Sean earlier in the week.
Seawn his agent, Sean Flerty. Yeah.
Yeah, And you know the thing, it kind of stuck out. It's like Rory is not that tall Orray's not that big, and I'm kind of like, how do you hit the ball so far? And he told me how it's all in your legs, And I feel like whenever I met him, I'm like, this would be kind of cool to do it. He just did, like playing a major championship. Like I'm a little kid, like not really thinking much of it. I'm like, okay, like I want to quit hockey and play golf.
So yeah, I mean, not many kids like get that opportunity to meet, you know, someone from another sport who is a you know, I mean Rory at that point, is it's incredible that he's still sitting on the same amount of majors in twenty four that he was sitting on in seventeen. He's been the number one player in the world. I mean, you can make an argument that when he's on I mean, I think he's one of the best players in the world day in and day out. I think he'll go down as one of the best
of this generation. But you made the decision to change, and you played a lot of golf up until that point. I mean, what was your by the time you were nine ten years old, when you decided to choose the pathway of saying, Okay, I'm going to just play competitive junior golf. How much golf had you really played?
My dad got me starting it, but I feel like Dana played probably the biggest role in like really getting me into it. So he did a course called Colucive Pines, which is right by where I live in Naples, Florida. And I did a chipping competition no longer after that with Rocko Media eight and I hold a couple chip shots in front of him, and you know, it's kind of like you got like a little I didn't even know what my ego was at the time that young, when he kind of like boosted me up like oh yeah,
like you're a really good chipper. And it's like kind of after that, like you get told you're good at something when you're a little kid, and you're kind of like, oh, maybe I start doing this more, and yeah, I just started taking it serious. From there.
I read a story that Tommy Morrison, who's you know, Tommy's a stud right playing at the University of Texas. He came and played in a tournament. Was it at Calusa or Naples? When you were how old Naples National. I was the Terra Cotta, right, the Terracotta Amateur, which is a which is a big junior golf tournament. A bunch of players have won that before. Tommy is you know, I mean he's a larger than what's he like, six seven six eight?
Yeah, I met him when that year as we were both fourteen. He was six eight and I was five six six eight.
Is a prech as a fourteen year old. You're six ' four now, so you don't have to look up to him as much. But again, you meet a young, you know, player who was getting a lot of buzz at that time, and he spends time with you. I think it's it's huge for kids, Noah, to have these kind of data points in your life. Right, everybody wants to be you know, when you're a junior golfer, I think everybody wants to be their heroes, right, you want to be Scotty Scheffler,
Ory McElroy, genre whoever it is. But when you meet someone who's kind of a similar age that you're at, it's a junior golfer like you are, I think it can be a really big boost to help kind of plant that seed to where Okay, I could do this as well. So you meet him, did you play with him? Did you watch him practice? What was that story?
So I was a standard Bear that year. So I was taking scores and I told Dana, I'm like, go watch this kid play. Like I know he's fourteen. I think he's pretty good. I didn't know how Tolly was actually, So then after a round I met him. We got a photo and I'm like, I want to go play nine holes, like you want to come play with and
he was hitting the two iron pass my driver. And after the round, I go to Dana, I'm like, yeah, I got a long way to go if he's fourteen, and I'm fourteen, Like so yeah, I mean we actually played a practice round together before the USM at Chaska Town Course, and the funny thing was was on the seventh hole, I went up to him like it's not like we're fourteen anymore, and I'm like twenty by him now. So it's funny the kid.
I think he's got a bright future. And when you see him, you just don't see golfers that big. But I think you now, as a sophomore, you are kind of the prototype of what we see the modern and a junior golfer and modern college golfer six foot four. Just to piss everybody off, that's that's not a superstar like yourself as an amateur. What's your ball speed? What's your clubhead speed? Right now? Who's like not trying to go after once? What do you kind of cruise clubheadspeed and ball speed at.
I'd probably say it's like probably somewhere between like twenty three and twenty six, and it's probably like eighty four to like eighty eight somewhere in there.
Okay, So for everybody listening, that's one hundred and twenty two to one hundred and twenty three miles per hour cluppet speed and kind of mid one eighties ball speed, which is on a pore with some of the longest hitters in the game. I mean, we'll just keep going with this to piss everybody off. How far are you here in five iron carry, no wind, flat carry, not trying to kill one to twenty five twenty five? Okay, Yeah, that's great. Everybody's gonna love that seven iron.
One ninety five two hundred.
One ninety five, two hundred. You know you can step on it and get it to two fifteen. Okay, this will be the one that treats everybody out nine iron? How far are you here?
Nine?
I just stock nine iron, no wind, flat line.
One hundred and sixty, one hundred and sixty five.
When I first saw you, I mean, what's it been like four years ago? I think four years ago. I mean obviously when someone like you as a young kid gets brought, you know, by their parents. To me, I'm lucky enough to work with some really good players that have a tremendous amount of speed, and I've got to
be honest with you. See you hit a golf ball and watching you kind of ramp up through that first lesson we got looking at the size you were looking at kind of the raw speed that you had, it reminded me a lot of the first time that I saw Brooks. I met Brooks after he graduated from Florida State. He was Peter u Line's roommate. They were playing on
the Challenge Store. I was working with DJ at the time, but I was working with Ernie Els he just won his fourth major, and I saw Brooks and I'm just watching the speed, and I think it was a very similar situation and watching you, I mean I went away from that first golf lesson even though you were still really really young and still really really raw. You have a lot of the attributes in golf that you can't teach. Right. It's a little bit like being a running back or
a wide receiver, either faster or not right. You can either teach that maybe, but either have that. So you have all this speed, you have all this power, and correct me if I'm wrong. I think it's taken you a while to kind of grow into that, to kind of understand the speed and the power or you have, but also how to use that. Have you noticed, Noah, the jump from being a high school junior golfer to now going into your second year as a college golfer.
How have you learned and tried to deal with the fact that you have this kind of formula one kind of race car, right? I mean you can go as fast as you want if we tell you to hit it further. I mean, if you really want to jump on one with your driver, I mean, how far do you feel like you can carry it in the air? You really want to step on one?
I got one last winter time in the simulator was called here. I got one three sixty at sea level.
So the obvious question is you just played your first tournament of the year for the University of Iiowa. You guys went up to Minnesota. Back to Minnesota where the USAMA was not at hazel team, but good vibes up there. Took me through the eight that you make on a part five with all the damn speed you have. Talk me through that.
Yeah, great great hole to ask about. I really appreciate that.
Yeah, of course.
So I feel like whenever I hit a cut, now that's something we've worked on together, and you know, I decided to try and not hit a cut, which was a dumb, nineteen year old decision that I decided to make. And yeah, that golf ball's gone living in the woods somewhere in Minnesota and.
Going to have a cold winter.
Yeah, and then I hit another one with my mini driver and I had to take an unplayable after that drive, and yeah, made Nate. That's how that.
You know, when you juniors and college players, you know, talk about these big numbers you make, there's always this story about, you know, I did this and I did that. Then it hit into you know, I mean the two iron. You've got your back how far you carry that?
I took that out. I have a five wood now.
Okay, so how far you carry the five one comfortable.
Is probably to sixty five?
Okay. How long was the par five you just made Nate on. I mean it wasn't seven hundred yards tixo five okay, so you still could have hit five wood in the middle of the fairway. Lay up, Yeah, make a birdie. The jump from junior golf to college golf.
What have you noticed is the difference for you as a player, right, because there is a big step right every developmental stage that you go at as an athlete, but specifically as a golfer, there is a jump from junior golf from you know, AJGA golf to high level junior golf and then the level that you're trying to
go out now. When you got to Iowa as a freshman, the mac McLear story fifth your senior two time Big Big ten champ, tell everybody what you decided to tell your coach that you wanted to do as soon as you got to Iowa as a freshman.
Yeah, I just wanted them as much as I can and beat them as much as I can, And I kind of I kind of did that, So that's pretty good.
So you said to your coach, Hey, he's the best player on the team, he's kind of a stud. I'm a freshman coming in. I want to play him and see what I can do. You won, right, Yeah, three and two, three and two. What did you notice about your game going up against someone who's obviously in the college ranks, a fifty year senior, two time Big ten champ. I mean, he's the stud of the team, right. Every college golf team kind of has that guy that is the stud. Most of the time they're either you know,
juniors or seniors. But there are guys that are studs as a freshman, as a sophomore, but very rarely. But when you got to iowan you kind of I mean, let's be honest. You called out Mac and Sid listen, I want to see what my game can do against the team's best player. Were you surprised at the way you played? Were you surprised at the way he played? What did you notice about that day?
Uh? I figured out that he doesn't make as many big numbers as I do. I feel like, you know, everybody who's the best in college golf. What I've realized I've learned a lot from my freshman a sophomore, you're like freshman year, I'm kind of looking in like wow, like everybody's like really good. And you get to your sophomore and now I kind of feel like I'm kind of one of the bigger dogs, like people are kind
of looking up to me now. But like as a freshman, like you see Mac and it's like you don't make a big number, Like he doesn't make a double bogie, Like he makes a bogie at worst. And that's something like you talk about how I'm like a race car driver, like, yeah, I can make seven birdies around, but I can make two triples and a bogie or something.
You can crash the car, right, you can have the fastest lap in the race, be leading the race, and then just through. But I think a lot of that no is you don't know what you don't know, right, And so the learning curve, like you said your freshman year, I think saying every tournament, qualifying for every tournament you've got how many you're what four or five tournaments in the fall, four or five tournaments in the spring, You've
got to go qualify for those? What's it for everybody listening your college freshman, what's the qualifying process like for people that don't know, is a Division one college golfer?
Yeap. So for our first event on a fall, we'll do we did five rounds of qualifying, so play five rounds, eighteen holes. Top three guys make it and it's two coaches picks. So yeah, won the qualifying this year by ten, So that was quite nice.
What you do last year in the first qualifier.
They shot on a shoot. Last year I came second. I shot fourteen hunder and lost by eleven. Yeah to mac so that was pretty good.
Was there a learning curve in playing the golf courses your freshman year, because obviously you're going to be playing on maybe something You're lucky that you grew up kind of in Naples. You grew up on good golf courses, but still you're going to be going from that jump from high school golf to and junior golf to college golf. The golf courses are going to be longer, they're going to be more difficult, They're going to tuck the pins.
What do you feel like your freshman year at the University of Iowa that you learned from yourself, that you learned from your teammates, but more importantly, what you learn from your coaches at Iowa.
Yeah, I mean I feel like everybody in junior golf, and I mean I can attest to it because I know how I was. I mean, you think your prime Tiger Woods in nineteen ninety nine and you see a pen, you fire at the pin and you hope it's really close. And you get to college and the pins are three off, the corners above ridges, the greens are firm. Every course you play in college golf is good at the Division
one level. Every single golf course you're gonna play is gonna be good, and it's gonna they're gonna make it as hard as you can. I feel like the thing that I've taken in for my coaches, especially from you, is like you have to pick and choose your points and when to use my speed and when to use my talent that I'm lucky enough to have, and I work really hard to keep it and get it better and better and better to where I want to go. And it's like if the pick and choose your spots,
I feel like you told me one time. We're talking about Brooks like asking how many flagsticks and a major championship he aims at and I think you said for four rounds. It was something like four and four rounds.
He just doesn't do it that all state. And I think you know, certainly, but that's something that no one can tell you, right. I mean I can sit here, no matter how many good players that I've worked with, no matter how much information I can give you, it's still you as the player, having to go out and
make those mistakes yourself. Do you feel like you've learned from the experiences that you had that freshman year of college that you feel like are starting to become kind of I don't want to say non negotiables for you, but I think you have a better understanding of how to play the game. But like you said, when you're a junior, you can get by I think on being long, right, I mean when you were in high school. I mean, how much further past everybody on your high school team?
Are you hitting it? One hundred?
Yeah, that's pretty it's a long way.
Yeah. So you get to Iowa. What's a typical week for you at Iowa? Like in season? Right, So obviously you're going to class Monday, through Friday, but from a from a golf standpoint, because I think it's a good insight for a lot of people listening, maybe that are thinking about trying to play competitively, maybe their junior or they have you know, we've got parents listening. So what's a typical week like for you? Talk me through last week?
You get to Iowa Monday, Talk me through Monday through Friday of last week.
Yeah, so leading the tournament will lift three days a week, concluding another day before we leave, like kind of like a primer getting ready. So last week Monday, we don't have LYFT, but we have practice structured practice from two to five. You can do whatever you want. So I'm pretty much out there at a like eleven thirty eleven, getting my work in before practice and doing a structure.
Tuesday we have LYFT six thirty to seven thirty, which also happens on Thursday and Friday in the morning in the morning, and then you'll have class and then structured practice again pretty much every day. Structured practice will be at two o'clock, two to five o'clock. Just that's the best for us. But I'm always out there early trying to get in work before everybody. I'm lucky enough to where I don't have class Thursday and Friday. I'd take some online classes so I can allow myself to practice
little more. So I mean Thursday and Friday for me, if I'm done with the left and I got my homework done, I'll be at the golf course for eight hours. Just you gotta take advantage of the good weather. I got it, so you know.
I talked to Chris Venturo, who's a member at the Floridian. He and Victor Hovelin are both They both just kept on playing the Olympics Fornary, but they were part of that national championship team with Matt Wolfe at Oklahoma State. And when I talked to Chris about what he did in college, he said that Wolfie, Bobby and Chris, he
said they just played way more than they practiced. How are you finding that balance between how much you play versus how much you're practicing your technique and that kind of blending of the two, because that's again, that is that is hard to do, right because you think the way you're going to get better is just practice, practice, practice, practice.
Are you finding that playing and seeing what happens on the golf course is becoming more of a priority or you locked into kind of what you're doing technique wise.
No, I don't really spend that like, to be completely honest, I kind of limit myself, Like I'll give myself like a thirty minute time period on the range where it's like okay, like I'm gonna do like technique stuff and check my stuff to make sure everything's good. But it's like I've had this talk with my teammates. I'm a captain this year, and I tell them it's like, yeah, it's like cool. You can make a five footer on a putting green or a fifteen footer, or you can
get a draw in a range. I'm a big believer in you gotta do it on the golf course too, Like can you hit a driver down a twenty yard wide fairway? Can you to seven iron from however far to this pin? I feel like the only way you're gonna learn is by getting a ball in the actual hole, not getting in a putting green. Cup. So I play every single day that I can.
With your teammates, do you guys play matches? Are you always playing for something or do you guys just kind of go out and kind of freewheel it.
No, So like today, me and two other guys on the team went up and played banker. So that was fun.
Okay, So what is I don't even know what banker is.
So there's three guys. Uh, one guy's banker. It's individual matches. So it's me, Ryan and Josh to my teammates. So banker hits last. You play like a five dollar match versus everybody on that hole, and yes, it's me versus Ryan, then Josh rous May and banker. He can press the banker, but if the banker presses, you have to press both people. So, yeah, you win today, I actually lost. That was kind of embarrassing.
Let's get to I alluded to. It was a hell of a summer for you. Cup, which is one of the big kind of amateur golf tournaments. Everybody Brooks has played in it. Everybody's played in it. Again, that's a trophy that when you look at the names on that and you look at the entry list of players that have played in I think everybody that's played Division one college golf. There are a lot of people playing all over the world on various tours. They've all played in
the Porter Cup, you finished second. Did that kind of give you a little bit of boosting confidence coming off of a really solid freshman year at Iowa to where you went, Okay, I've got some big tournaments to play in, you know, the USAMBI and one of them. Did you feel after finishing second at the Porter Cup that it could be a springboard and give you that kind of confidence in your game and take it to a big, big, the biggest tournament you've ever played in, which is the USAM. Yeah.
So I feel like the thing I learned without myself that week is I didn't think a bogie on the back nine the whole entire tournament.
That helps.
So, I mean I closed really well, sixty seven sixty seven, sixty seven sixty nine. I mean, I lost my a shot, but you know, it stinks to lose. But I learned for myself that I can fire four rounds in our own a sixties. And granted didn't close the tournament the way I wanted to, but I learned that I can put it together in a big tournament. Is actually funny. So I wasn't qualified for the USAM before that tournament.
You had to go qualify.
I drove down five hours that night to another place in New York, play a practice round, and qualify the next day, which you shooting the qualifier sixty seven medalists.
I actually think that that actually helps. Right. You come off of a big finish for you, probably the biggest finish you've had in a big amateur tournament, and you still have to go qualify for the US. And let's tell everybody the story about you qualified for the US Junior last year, which was the kind of the biggest tournament that you played in. Tell everybody what your prep was for the US Junior and why you didn't play in the US Junior last summer.
Yeap qualified for the s Junior, which was.
A huge goal of yours, right, I mean that's.
Oh yeah, qualified for it, qumongous conference booster, like a big sy relief. Go to the Southern Junior, come third, go to the Western Junior, finished runner up, and then four days later I fell off an ATV and broke my wrist.
You thought it would be a good idea after coming off two of your best finishes as a junior. You've got your biggest junior tournament you've ever played, and you thought it'd be good to get on some sort of motorcycle out in the middle of the trees and gost around and mess shit up and fracture your wrist.
Yeah.
How many How many weeks out were you?
They told me four? So I was kind of hopeful I was gonna be able to play and it took eleven.
Eleven that injury. What I tell you, I told you no. No athlete comes back from an injury too late, right, everybody tries to come back too early. Yeah, we're joking about it because I know you were devastated by that. What in missing out on that US Junior do mentally for you? Did you get down on yourself or did you use it as on a fuel and say, Okay, I had an opportunity here to play in the US Junior. Whatever happened happened.
I feel like in the moment, you're kind of like, oh God, Like what did you do? Like this is the biggest moment your junior career and you're playing super good and you messed it up? Like and talking to all my friends. One of my best friends from back home, he qualified for the one out at Bandon and I really wanted to do it. I didn't qualify. So I feel like after it happened, like I'm in a like a brace and I can't do anything and I have
to learn how to do everything left handed. It made me like more hungry and put more of an emphasis on qualifying for the us AM. So I feel like it was almost a blessing in disguise because I really loved golf. But I feel like after that happened, I feel like it made me want it more and realize what I can do with qualify.
Sixty seven, the US Amateur Hazel Team US won a Ryder Cup there. I mean Tiger Waite Yang, I mean they went down the stretch. I mean. It is a big time golf course. It has a major championship pedigree. Three hundred and twelve players. Did you know that three hundred and twelve players start? Yeah, there's two rounds in qualifying. You got off to a fantastic start in the qualifier through a little opening round seventy seven at them in
the qualifier, and there's two courses. You shot seventy seven on the Big Course, yep. And then there's always two courses for the USAM there's one they do one round on the Big Course. And then you do one on kind of a satellite course. So you know, going to the second qualifying round, you basically got to shoot zero. Yeah, you know, the only way you're going to have a chance to qualify for the USAM is to shoot something
in the sixties. What was your goal? You figured you'd probably you need to go out shoot sixty six.
No, I knew I needed sixty four or sixty three.
So you knew you needed sixty four. Yeah.
It was great too, because I haven't made a birdie in eighteen holes, and I need to make birdies, so that was a little helpful. That was helpful.
So yeah, how many birdies did you make in the second round? Six six? Yeah, big confidence booster I think for you to get through that, because I think you would have been just destroyed to get to USAM after everything. Yeah, you know, after qualifying, after coming off the Porter Cup.
That was probably the best round of golf I have played in a circumstantial condition. Like I opened the around thirty on the front nine, just hot, just hot, and I go in, I get to the front nine, I'm like, I'm gonna shoot fifty nine and I make I think part of the first five holes in a row in the back nine, and this is actually really funny. So I asked my caddy, like, pulled the leaderboard, like where
are we standing? He checked in on the back nine which I started, which was my front nine, and it didn't update, so it showed me two back of where I needed to be going in the sixth hole, and I chipped in from across the green on a par three and I hit it to eight feet on my sixteenth hole and missed it. Hit it to five feet on my seventeenth hole and missed it in three, putted apar five, which is my last hole on nine, and I'm like, oh my god, like I just choked. I just choked.
And you're knocking the flag down with the last three holes and you're getting uping out of it. No.
And then I update my phone and my my mom's going nuts and I look at my phone, like what's going on? Like I missed it by one. I look at my phone. It shows him in forty first only Oh my god, like I did it, Like holy crap.
So now you get to the round of sixty four, so it's match play. You win your first match and not to play four and two go to the round to thirty two, two and one, get to the quarters. Are the round of sixteen four and two quarters, three and two. Let's go to the semifinals. So you get paired up against Jackson Buchanan. He's stud He's at the University of Illinois, which is in the Big ten, so he's a rival. He beat Preston Summer Hayes won the
US Junior I mean, that kid's stud. He's at Arizona State. He beats the number one ranked amateur in the world, Luke Clanton, who's basically kicking the shit out of people on the PGA Tour, and you beat him two up. Talk us through that match, I mean at that point was your confidence through the roof? Where you trying to stay in the moment because obviously you come in with nobody even picking you, right, They're picking Luke Clanton to win missing right. He's making cut some PGA Tour events.
He's in second to last group of PJ Tour events. I mean, you're not one of the favorites, right, You're beating some of the favorites to get to the final. How did you ride that wave of kind of good play and kind of get out of your own way because sometimes you know I've told you this in the past. I think you always have to be ready for the wave, because the wave will come right. Things will come in waves, and when you get the right wave, you gotta have the guts to get up and ride it. You qualify,
you shoot a really low round. Did you just feel like from then, Okay, I got nothing to lose. Now, I'm just gonna go see how good I can be here and see how far I can get.
Yeah, I feel like once I made match play, I feel like it just plays into my hands more. I mean you say, I'm like an F one car, I'm fast. I make a ton of birdies. You can kind of forget about the double you make. And I mean I played awesome golf. I mean, you can win a match a match play. So it's like I got through the round of sixty four and it's kind of like, oh, like, yeah, I want to match thirty two one again, which is actually a hard match that's a great fight, and round
of sixteen. I feel like in my quarterfinal match, I showed like a lot of guts and like a lot of like what you're saying, like ride the wave. I think I was eight under through twelve in my quarter final match or something like that, and I got against Jackson. You like, look at who's being beat press and you beat Luke that week, I'm like, okay, like you gotta get ready for like a dog fight, like who's gonna wan on it more? And you know, I feel like going into the round, he kind of handed me a
couple shots early and I got up late. But you know, I just I feel like I wanted it more than everybody else there that league. Once I finally got what it tastes, the success felt like and talked to my caddy. I mean, I think I hit one of the most clutch shots in my life on the eighteenth hole in that match, like to step up.
Yeah, I mean that's the hero shot. The clutch shot that you hit was to stand up on the eighteenth pole at Hazel Team, where if you missed that fair away you hit it in either of the bunkers, you're probably not making berdie. You know, I was messaging with your sports psychologist, doctor Brett mckable I've had on the
podcast before. We were messaging when you were on the eighteenth going to the att and I was messaging some other people that were watching, and I was like, there are times in every round of golf, but in every tournament to where there is no other option other than you just have to stand up and hit a great shot. It's a little bit like playing football, basketball, whatever other sports. Sometimes you just have to stand up and make a play. So what were your nerves going like? Because I thought,
you know, you guys had a really good fight. Ear Jackson in that semifinal match. You could have closed it out on seventeen. He pulled it on seventeen, pinned was back left almost wet in the water. Another big part of that match, that semifinal match, was it on fifteen to where.
Oh I was literally going to talk about that.
Yeah, so yeah, talk us through the fifteenth hole part five?
Right, Yeah, So I think he hits first and he just like quick sniped it off the tee, but he got firing like left's find another hole. And you know that's a hard t ball for me. When does in and off the left and there's obi right, I'm like, oh god, so I hit the fairway and I'm like okay, like he's in trouble. He laid it up in the rough. I'm pretty sure, maybe it was in the fair. I
can't remember. I had three hundred yards. I'm like, if I had a good Mini driver, like, it's gonna get up there and I can put this then away, chun cook it in the left rough and yeah. Then he hits a ledge up there to like twenty feet and he's probably thinking, and he's fine, I have the worst lie I've ever seen in my life from like seventy five yards and I hit this like high, like soft, like saw it come on. I'm like, oh my god,
like it's so good. It lands like perfectly in the slope and I hit it inside of him, and then he stepped up there and made it.
You've hit it to like fifteen feet right, yeah, which based off of the lie you had when you hit that shot, I'm like, wow, that is a hell of a shot, right. And in match play, there's always parts in the match like this, right, there are these kind of opportunities where it looks like your gown looks like you don't have the advantage. And then so he hoops it from twenty feet right for birdie.
So he hoops it and I'm only one up at the time, so I'm like thinking to myself. This is when it like started like really running through my head, like okay, like shit, like it's gonna be like all square, like going to sixteen and I like look at this putt and I'm like I had like a weird like sudden like calmness like over I'm like, oh, it's gonna go in. And I get up and it's like like
seven of the like fifteen feet there. I'm like, oh, I made it, and like as soon as it went over the edge, I like gave it like a big fist pump and I like kind of like, yeah, they hit it in the water. On sixteen, I was two up with two to play. That was the most nervous I've ever been. Is actually on seven, I wasn't nervous. On eighteen it was really weird.
I mean seventeen, you know, there's water left, and for people listening, the seventeen Hazel team is where Rory and Patrick Reed and the ryder cop. Rory makes this massive long pot at the par three there's more huge grand stands there and does the kind of I can't hear you thing, I can't hear you, and then pet Reed kind of makes one from twenty feet right on top of him and does the finger and the whole thing.
How did you deal with the pressure on seventeen? Knowing where that pin was, which was back left when it was in the air, do you think you hit it in the water.
I didn't think I hit it in the water. I thought maybe there's a chance I was going to catch the left edge. I was just happy I made contact with the golf ball. To be completely honest, I mean I am legit like on the T box, like I've never thought about it in my life. It is the first time, like the Masters, like cross like the top of my head, and I think I like I wasn't ready to go, Like my hands are like shaking, like I'm drinking like a bottle of gatorade. I'm like talking
to my caddy. I'm like, dude, like I can't swing right now. And I do it and it stayed up and he had a dart like what I was thinking. I'm like, okay, like he's not getting at a bad shot, and you know I flubbed my chip, didn't chip it in. I'm like okay, like I'm gonna make four. Like he's got like a twelve foot or dead down the hill. I'm not going to give it to him. He can still hit it by he made it. I'm like, okay, like great, like he just made burry Like he feels good.
So how far it's the eighteen pole?
I think it's is it for eighty or is it it's four seventy or four eighty something like.
That, But it's the shot. It's uphill, yeah, all the way up home. Mean you can't even I mean you're standing on the tea box there. You can't even. I'm close to seeing the green.
You can see like where everybody's standing, but you can just see the top of the landing area. That's about it.
So what's that mental self too? Because it's actually a pretty good walk from seventeen all the way over to the eighteenth pole. I mean it's it's not close. I mean, I mean you've got time to think. It's not like the t boxes right off the seventeenth grade. What were you saying to yourself? What'd your caddies say to you? And what was the thought process standing up there?
I feel like he gave me a little bit of space once I got off the hole. He's like, okay, like let him calm down. He was actually the guy that caddy for me in the Porter Cup, so I brought him with me to Minnesota and he's kind of had this saying with me, it's like it's a one hole match, one whole match, Like forget about it, dude, Like it doesn't matter, like it's in the past. So got up to the eighteenth t you know, kind of was just like it's time to just hit a shot.
Like how He's like, how bad do you like really want it? Like do you want it bad?
No?
And I'm like, yeah, I really really want it. And Jackson hit first, which I feel like is like you're gonna know that there's pressure. But he hit a bat He didn't hit his best drive in the left trap, and I got up there and for me, I loven't and too off the right wind and it was perfectly you get hold it up. Yeah, I'm just like, get it airborne with a cut and it's perfect.
What was the yardage?
I had one hundred and eighty yards in from my second shot and then hit a chip seven after he hit the lip of the bunker actually on a second.
Shot, which made it easier.
Yeah, I'm like, okay, like just hit it on the Green please, and then yeah, hit it up there like four feet and I'm like, oh, yeah, like you've probably seen I like pimp Step that I knew what I did, like.
I did it, Like, oh, that's so good, and yeah, is that kind of the first time that you really kind of felt like a player? Yeah, like the people you watch on television, right, I mean you've spent so much time as everybody does watching players on TV. You watch all these guys down the stretch hit all these great shots. You know Rory, you know, Scottie Scheffler, maximum, all these superstars that you watch that play all these big tournaments and stuff. Was that really kind of the
first moment where you're like, dude, wow, I just did that. Yeah.
I feel like the first one I did was in the quarterfinal match, the flopshot a hole. It was just stupid.
Oh that was a joke.
That was a joke. But yeah, I mean I look back at it because I'm like on like the reels or whatever with the USGN and Instagram, and I like, I watch it back, I'm kind of like, damn, dude, I'm like, you were like buck. Then then they're like that was Yeah, it was kind of crazy.
So now, obviously, you know when you get to the final of the US m you know you've got a Birth of the Masters. You're going to the US Open, which will be at Oakmont next year, which is an iconic, iconic, one of the hardest. Dude, if you're a played Oakmont, Yeah, why do you play that in the US Open? Because as hard as you think that golf course is, the time you played it, I mean you're talking like pie are squared harder than what you've got Now, I sent
you a message and said, the job isn't done. Still gonna go win the tournament because only buy a scare that kid's baller the kid's ball Yeah, yeah, great. I was in Greenbrier and I was talking to John ram about him, obviously because that would being from from Spain. I was talking to Sergio, he works, Sergio's dad helps him as well. They were like, I mean, John Robinson, dude, he beats me. I mean, he's he's going he hits
it miles. You're you're not used to really playing with people that he as far as you do, or hit it further than you, and that kid can smoke it off the tea. So what was the night before the USAM Like, I mean, how did you prepare? What were you thinking? Did you get a lot of sleep?
I slipped recently. I turned my phone on do not disturb. It was way too many text messages. I mean, me and Mike Caddie played college football like we've been doing every night. So just kind of like you treat it like a little bit like a normal night, like you kind of just like sit back and have fun. And we knew the job wasn't done, Like we never even talked about it really like what it would be like to like host that trophy or whatever. And you know, I got there in the morning, and you know, the
morning eighteen was a struggle for me. I mean I didn't hit it good at all. I had a pounding headache the whole entire round. Probably it was adrenaline. I mean it was the first time in a tournament, even in these big amateur tournaments, Like you get nervous in a final round with a chance to win. But like you see the trophy on the first tee. You have Larry Fitzgerald who's standing right next to the first team, who's there to just watch.
You NFL legend.
Yeah, and it's just like it kind of like really hits you. It's like, oh my God, Like you know, like everything leading up to it means so much, but it's like, now you have thirty six holes to fight for your life and voice one of the biggest amateur trophies in the world. And you know, I'm very proud of myself for the way that I thought.
Yeah, you're three so for people don't know, I mean you were three down through four holes. Yeah, you're four down after the eighteen holes. Yeah, there were big crowds out there, obviously the Iowa connection being in the Midwest, were those some of the biggest crowds and some of the biggest roars you've ever played in front of.
Yeah, I think ninety nine percent of the crowd wanted me to win, so yeah.
And as an athlete and as a golfer, you can feed off of that. And I'm sure that's probably the first time that you've really kind of felt what you know, they feel in the right cop what Rory and DJ and Brooks feel like when they take the lead with three holes left and there's a big crowd. That must have been so cool to kind of hear those roles, to know that you had a big following.
Yeah. I mean I chipped in on my nineteenth hole to start the match, which was electric, and I got it gone. I'm like, okay, like I can come back. And I feel like it was either you or Brett who told me is like get it two down at the turn.
I told I think we were all telling you that, right. Yeah. I kind of felt like if you could get close through nine. Obviously Oselli he's never been in that situation before either. Right, he's trying to win the biggest tournament of his life. You're going to have that moment of confidence crisis right where you're like, okay, I'm four up. And I kept everybody that I was talking to. I was at Greenbrier for lib but all the guys that were playing, you know that knew you were in it.
They all just were like, DJ was gone, dude, if you could get it somehow around two, But if it's at four and it goes to five, you're going to to run out of holes. Yeah, and you're you're gonna run out of holes because mentally you're like, okay, I'm five down now with X amount of holes to play, it doesn't matter, you know, you go five down in that match early. Yeah, you start thinking, okay, I don't have enough holes time. Yeah, what was the time between
the morning round and second round? What were you thinking? How did you kind of flip that switch and kind of make it a run in the second eighteen?
Yeah. I took a shower actually in between rounds, and then I called you talk to you. I talked to Brett McCabe, who's my sports psychologist, and then I talked to John Harris actually too.
Yeah, who's a former USAM Champion's a member of AUGUSTA. I mean he's he's an amateur legend. I know his health hasn't been great. You talked about it in the broadcast. What advice did he give you? Yeah?
He knew I was struggling a bit. He's like, you deserve to be there, Like you're better than this kid. And he's just like, whenever you're warming up for you around, get creative, hit a bunch of hooks, hit a bunch of slices, and he said, bring high energy. I'm like, okay, So I'm out there in the range and I'm sure everybody's thinking, like what the heck is this kid doing? Like I'm hitting eight iron hooks and slicing eight irons and great advice. I'm like, okay, like I feel much
better than I did in the morning. Like I'm like, I feel like now like I'm playing around with my buddies, which is kind of funny, but I'm not like it was more serious than that. But I'm warming up like it's a nine am on a Sunday, and yeah, I mean, as soon as I hold that chip on one, I'm like, okay, I'm gonna win this golf tournament. Like that was in the morning. I did not think that the morning. I struggled a lot, but then whenever I got it back after that, I'm like, the crowd is so on my
side right now, like it is not with Josele. And then he made a big pot on two and I kind of like got put back in my place. I'm like, damn, like okay, and then.
I was three down. Now I'm back to four down.
Yeah, I kind of get up on the second team. It's a bit deflating. And he pounded a dry he smoked, So I made a funny joke to the later in the round, to the people who were watching. So he smokes when like dead straight and I look at a j and I'm like, okay, like it's time to like ball. And I hit it by him on that tea box
and he hits it right. I hit the par five and two made birdie and I think on seven, I made like a thirty five footer for eagle and I got it back to two down and then I stuffed it on eight and he had like a chip shot. He almost shipped it in. I made my putt. I go to ag I'm like, if we make this like this is huge and I ended up barely missing and I but I made the turn it two down. I'm looking at him and I'm like, dude, like when one more hole and this kid's gonna be like crapping himself.
It's gonna be nervous because I mean, again, neither one of you have ever been in that situation. And I think you know match play can turn on these moments to where you think you're fine by the time you you get it back to one up. He's got to be thinking, Okay, I was cruising in the morning. This kid had nothing, I mean, and all of a sudden, with not that long ago.
I one down, but I gave him two holes back. Actually I gave him a tenth hole, which is bad. So he was back to three up on eleven and he made a great birdie. So I'm four down with seven to play, and I look at aj again and like he's like, how bad do you want it? And we tied twelve and thirteen was the first time. I
don't know how many holes that is. That was the first time, Like he handed me a hole was thirteen because he hit it in the water, and I still made it hard for me to win, like I staw to make like a five footer for par and then I made a huge pot on fourteen. We both birdied fifteen. I mean, yeah, one, sixteen, tied seven. Yeah, I got
it to the eighteenth. I guarantee you. I can't imagine how many people thought after the morning eighteen there was no way that match was getting me the eighteenth hole.
I'll be honest. I I mean, obviously you didn't have your best stuff going into you know that. After that morning round, I thought it was going to be a struggle for you because you've just never been in that situation before, right, I Mean it's not like you've been down the stretch in major championships. You know, you know what that feels like. It's also probably your first real real test of managing your adrenaline on some of the holes.
How much further were you hitting it with your irons than you normally do, just because you're so jacked up on all the adrenaline. Because I think the first hole in the second round, that's what got you right. You piped it in the start of the second eighteen. You're right in the middle of the fair way and you one bounced it over the green. And I guarantee you you thought you had the white club and the right number and you didn't think you could hit it over it.
But you just go to all this adrenaline going and you're like, man, how far did that go? Yeah?
I feel like there there's a couple of shots that like stand out. I think the third hole, I think it five would from three hundred and then seven was four iron from like two forty five, And I think I on twelve, I think I had eight iron from two hundred. That's just fifteen. That was probably one of the best pressure shots I've hit. Hit nine iron from like one hundred and thirty yards on fifteen and took spin off of it and stuffed it.
So yeah, so you didn't get the job done, you end up losing two up. Yeah, you're going to the Masters, You're in the US Open. What's the one thing coming out of that experience at the USM nor that you learned about yourself that you didn't know at the start of the week.
That I belong with the the Leuke Clantons of the world, the jose Lee by Stairs of the world, the Gordon Sergeants of the world. I belong with as much as their name is up there, I know that I can fight for my right to be up there with them too.
I think there will be a lot of people that will hear that no one and think, Okay, that's that's being cocky, that's being arrogant. But you have to believe in yourself and your ability to get to the next level if you don't. I mean, I had a lot of players at the tournament when Brooks won the PGA Beth Page when he made that comment in the press conference, and you know everybody knows it. He was like, I
think major's the easiest ones to win. Nicholas thought this way, and he went through that, and I had players, a couple of players that I was working with, though, I mean, who the hell does this kid think he is? And I remember texting someone back going, don't you want to think like that? And there's that borderline between being arrogant, but also you have to believe in yourself as a goal forer and you have to believe in yourself as
an athlete. And I think you need experiences like you went through to believe, because I'll be honest with you, and Brett and I have talked about this. You stepped out, Dana and I've talked Abouss. I don't think you believed you were good before this past summer. I think you knew you had talent, but I don't think you believed that you could go out and win big tournaments. What do you do now going into your sophomore year with that belief? How do you not get ahead of yourself?
How do you not fall into some of the traps that you can fall into where you get sidetracked, you start thinking you're a baller. Everybody starts because now everybody's going to tell you you're good, right, Everybody kind of knew you were good before this, So how do you deal with the weight of expectation, but also how do you deal with, like I said, not getting ahead of yourself, staying humble, continuing to work hard so that you can still achieve the goals and the dreams that you've got.
Yeah, I mean I feel like I was. I talked to Brett before this, before the USAM, I was always one of the kids who would kind of be like, oh wow, like that's Gordon Sergeant on the range, like
it's cool to be like competing against him. And you know, my first college front back, I felt like I was a kid that kind of everybody was looking at, which is a new thing for me because I feel like I'm a very humble kid, like I kinda very like relaxed and you know, now I know which is really hard for me to say, but I will admitted in this last college urm, I got too comfortable, and I'll fully admit that, like that's how I messed up, and
I learned from it. I was in the lead and I ended up finishing thirteenth, and you know, I learned a lot from this week, which is something I think I needed for the future, to be completely honest. So yeah, I mean I got too comfortable.
I'm like, wow, I think two of the best things that I think when you look back, I think this past week are two really really important things. Post getting to the finals of the USM. One, you go out your sophomore year at Iowa and your first college tournament. After the USM you're leading after the first round, and I think in the long run, finishing thirteen thinking that Okay, yeah, I'm just gonna keep playing good.
Yeah.
I think that's that's huge for your learning, and I think it's it's massive that you understand that you still have a long way to go.
Yeah, Like, I mean, I was mad for about an hour after the golf tournament, but like I really like got into it. I did all my stat work that we do. I looked into and I'm like, I think I'm like man, Like, as much as like it sucks, it's like over with, Like I can't change it. It's like I can use this to my advantage so much better in the future. Like we have Purdue in two weeks and it's like, speak, I'm hungry than I ever was. Like I want to win so bad. I can't force it.
I kind of gotta let it. I mean, like let it happen, but like I now know, I feel like the last two turns the USA am and that like I've learned so much to what it means to close out a golf throat now that I just I feel like I have so much of an advantage and I know how to use it. More like I feel like what you said, like it was great to be like in the lead, I got comfortable, but now I feel like I know what I need to do to stay within myself to close it out for the final eight team.
You know, I've told you the story before, but Tiger Woods in two thousand and one, when my dad was working with Tiger, my dad and I never work with Adam Scott. We were at the PGA the Atlanta Athletic Club that David Toms won, and we got Scotty to play practun with Tiger. I mean, it's two thousand and one Tiger, so it's it's as good as it gets, right, I mean, it's it's Tiger Mania that stretch from two thousand to two thousand and eight, two thousand and nine,
I mean, you couldn't beat him. And Adam was still playing on the European Tour and Tiger said, Hey, you just got to learn how to hang around and get in position more often, put yourself in position all the time. Do you feel like maybe that's something that you haven't felt before that it's as much about getting yourself into position to win tournaments as opposed to trying to shoot sixty four on the first day and birdie every hole, because it's hard to do that, right, It's hard to
play good all the time. What are your goals now, Noah? Moving forward? Obviously you're going to play in two majors next year. Yeah, but what are your goals for this year and this season at IOWA?
I feel like I'm very good at like breaking it down into parts of the year, so I'm kind of letting that end of the year kind of be its own thing. I'm really focused on what's going on now on the fall, so we have three more events that were playing in the fall. I want my scoring average to be below seventy and a half, so that's one of my goals.
Yeah. Yeah, So last year you played every tournament, it's seventy two point eight. Do you find a way to shave off two strokes?
Yeah?
How you do that? I'm really interested to hear this.
So right now my scoring average is seventy one point six, which is pretty decent. But now we switched over our stats to clipt YEP, so it's really in depth. So I've been I've never been more on top of it in my life. So for me, I'm a really good iron player and a really good putter. So for me, I was getting better off the tee. So I want to limit my penalty shots I have per tournament. If I limit my penalty shots, I think that's easily a stroke for me off my scoring average over the whole year.
Thinking about it, the biggest weapon you have is the driver. But with a big weapon like a driver, we see some of the best players in the world. I mean, Rory drives the shit out of it, right, But when you hit it as far as you guys hit it with the speed that you've got, when it goes offline, it goes a long way offline.
I feel like a big proponent to me get it. My score is lower as a Tiger five, so it's no bad up and it's no three putts I think. I think it's no bogies with a scoring club in your hand.
So Tiger's mantra was no bogies on par fives, no big numbers, so no doubles triples, no bogies inside of one hundred yards, no three potts, and no blown easy up and downs. Yeah.
So I think if I do that mixed with my hazard balls and not losing any balls, I think there's a pretty good shot I can do what I have that goal for. I don't wanta for three more. I don't want to finish outside of the top twenty, on inside the top twenty all that tournaments, and a big one for me is getting in the gym. War So I would say those are my three big ones for me right now that I'm focusing on. Obviously I have smart goals, but those are my three kind of like
big goals. I don't want to knock out.
Well, I'm just gonna go out ahead and say this. If you're not getting your ass into the gym, the hell is wrong with you because someone else playing college golf, playing amateur golf, and all the people that you're going to be playing with, and the masters in the US Open, they're in the gym. They're not taking any days off. Now, it's been a hell of a summer man, it was fun to watch you play. It was fun to I
sent you a picture after your semifinal round. I was out to dinner and I'm sitting at a restaurant at the Greenbrier, and I look at the bar and the TV at the bar, and you're getting interviewed. Definitely something that I thought would happen at some point. I didn't think it would happen this early, or you as a nineteen year old. But listen, it's been fun. I think you've had of proven to yourself that you belong, you know, on the competitive amateur circuit, you know, in big competitive ones.
And I think everybody listening will follow you. It'll be a fun story at the Masters. And you got to go get some w's this all and this spring at Iowa, you got to go get some wins. So you better bring home some trophies all the Hawkeyes. Noah, great talking to you, pal. We're proud of you. And go to school, go to class, get your ass.
In the gen Oh well, well, thank you so much for having me.
Great talking to you. So that was no a kent, And listen, I think the kid's got a bright future. He's got a lot of tools. In the toolbox. But it'll be very interesting to see if he can take, you know, a really good run at the USM and and turn that into an amateur career that is filled with a lot of promise because, like I said, he hits at miles. He's kind of got the prototype of what the modern game is. But that's no guarantee for success.
But I think he's got a bright future and I think he is someone that we will hear from again. I want to thank everyone for listening, rate, review, subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.