I miss a green, for example, I'm already upset.
When I find my ball in the bunker, I'm really upset. And when I find my ball in a.
Brid egg Friday Egg, the dreaded Friday Friday fridag Egg Friday Bride Egg.
Lie, I'm about ready to run off of the course. Ladies and gentlemen, Welcome back to another edition of the FRIDAYGG podcast. UH. This week, our guest is t K Kelly.
He's a Chicago native and recent Ohio State graduate. TK just earned status on the Latin American Tour and he turned professional after a good amateur career that he won a NCAA regional last year, two Illinois state amateur titles, beaten up on hacks like me, and you know, his senior year he had All American honor and Bowl Mentioned honors. So t K, welcome on, Thanks.
For having me on. I'm excited to hop on here and talk about some stuff and have a full little discussion.
Yeah, yeah, we're diverging. We've been on an architect tear and we love kind of the whole going for the professional career and the journey and glad to kind of catch you on your early part of your journey to hopefully the PGA Tour here.
Yeah. Absolutely going to be down in Latin America this spring and fall playing on that tour and excited, excited to just get it going and see what traveling is all about, you know, meeting a ton of people and seeing a bunch of new places. I'm really looking forward to. It should be a it should be a fun time.
Yeah. So why don't you give our listeners a little background into you how you got into golf and kind of your career this far.
So my the biggest probably point in my background would
be that my mom she also played college golf. She played at the University of Tulsa, and they actually won a national championship in women's golf while she was there, and got second two other years, and so she a bunch of her teammates went on to play on the LPGA Tour and she played with the She just played with ladies that play at other schools that are on the tour now and in broadcasting, and so she has a lot of a lot of friends throughout the game,
and golf is just kind of something that's always always been really big part of our family. My grandfather was on the board for the WGA, and was a member at Butler back in the day with all the old Western Opens that were out there. And he was the chairman for the nineteen ninety Senior Open at Madina. So just just a big part of And it wasn't the Senior Open in ninety, it was the US Open that was when Hail Arwin won. But yeah, so golf has just kind of been a big part of our family.
And just got introduced to the game at a very young age and took the liking to it and slowly started to quit every other sport as I got older, to just focus more and more on golf because I could just tell that was a sport I love the most and that's what I like to do.
How long did it take you to beat mom on the golf course.
I think I was probably around ten or eleven. She once she had me and my brother, she didn't She
didn't quite keep her game up as much. She didn't really practice as much anymore, and the less she practiced, the less she wanted to play because it always would annoy her or bother her, and that she couldn't play as good as she used to be able to she's the most competitive person I've ever known, and so she has gotten back into it in the last few years now that me and my brother I'm through college and my brother's in college, so she has more time to
work on her game and she's definitely taking advantage of that. And we have a lot of fun with our family for some grudge matches whenever we go on golf trips or holidays back home, so it's a lot of fun. But yeah, she's getting back the game a little bit. Took play some really good golf in sports. I think a summer or two ago. We were up at Aaron Hills and she convinced being willed to give her one too many shots and she ended up shooting the seventy four on us at Aaron Hills and her dad be
me and my brother by an absolute landslide. So that was a tough loss. But yeah, we all have a lot of fun with it as a family.
Does your dad have game or is he kind of dragging down the family handicap?
He has some game that he doesn't want to let on. He doesn't want really anybody to believe the game he has. But he's he's always had a pretty smooth swing, hits the ball knife. He was a really good rutter putter when I was growing up, but he seems to have been struggling with the flastic a little bit the last couple of years. But yeah, no, he can. He could play some good golf as well, just not I wouldn't
say he'll. He would admit that it's not quite the level of me and my brother, my mom, but he's a He's a dark horse in the family for sure.
Yeah, probably getting some good pops and can sneak up on you. Yeah, absolutely, So who were some of kind of your favorite golfers grown up? I always think this is interesting with the younger guys. I was a big Tiger guy. He was kind of huge when I was young. But curious with you who was kind of some of the big influences.
I mean, for me too, it was just far and away Tiger, especially growing up out at Madina. One of my earliest golf memories is going out to the ninety nine PGA and I was only five years old, but I was still walking around with my mom and I just can faintly remember watching Tiger. And then in two
thousand and six, I was twelve. Then so I have a lot better recollection of that, and that's when I was really getting into golf, and Tiger just blew away the field again there, so it was just like watching my hero range of my eyes. I would always go down to the Western Open at cog Hill and what became to BMW to wash Tiger and he was just
almost like a mythical creature to me. And played all the games, video games, Tiger Woods, video games growing up, and that's that was kind of the heyday of my childhood was in video games started to get really big like that, so that also played into it. But then also some some just other guys. I was a huge Camillo fan around the two thousand and six PGA. They got called him on Thursday and Friday, like all thirty
six holes that week. Just I was really into the Jay Linberg clothing line back then, and he was rocking JL and he was ripped and just hit it forever and was kind of a cool guys when he did the Spider Man thing on the greens. Looking back at it now, it's kind of funny, but just when I was a twelve year old kid walk around, I thought Camillo was on the coolest guys out there, and then.
Early in your junior career where you just decked out in jay Lindenburg. Were you that guy?
No, I had. I had one mock Jaylenburg sure that I love to wear. If I look up a picture of it now, it is probably the most brutal golf shirp I've ever owned. And I regrettingly did have a white jay lienbird belt with a big jail buckle that
has since long been retired. But those were those two pieces definitely were two staples of my junior golf wardrobe, probably around the age of twelve to thirteen, which they they have not seen the light of day probably since then, but back then they were definitely two of my favorite articles I had.
You know, I keep wondering, like when the white belt's gonna die, because like there's such strong resentment towards it now with a certain aspect of the community golf community. But I keep seeing more and more young kids wearing white belts, Like what is what's going on? Where's the disconnect?
Yeah, that's a good question. I if you, when I was fourteen or something, someone were to tell me that white belts were cool, would probably looks them like they were crazy, because I was convinced that white golf belts like I would primarily only ever wear white golf belts, like I didn't think anything else looked good. And now I look at an outfit and I'll put a black belt on with it, and I'll think, you know, back in the day, I would have thought this, this looked weird.
But I just think it's an age thing. I think kids, once they get to a certain age, realize that all right, you know, like I didn't. Probably you did. I don't know if you were ever in on them, but just like this isn't this just doesn't look good anymore. But when you've got you know, guys on two were wearing big white belts, you've got a four year old guy at the club wearing a big, flashy white belt, and there's a there's a real problem there because there's just no excuse for that.
Yeah, I mean, if I dig up the relics, I mean, I'm guilty. I had a white belt that would make appearances for like two three years, but it's been long retired, kind of like yours. It's a you know, it's you look back and just shake your head at some of the things that used to be in for golf. So you know, you had a good high school career and then you went to Ohio State. What other schools were you looking at and why'd you go to Ohio State.
I was looking at Ohio State, Illinois in Iowa. Those are probably my big final three. I like the opportunities that the other two schools offered me. Think they both have awesome history with their golf programs and have really good teams. Obviously, what Illinois has done in the last five or six years has been remarkable. Coach Small has
done an unbelievable job there. But I just stuck out to me about Ohio State was just the lure of being an athlete at Ohio State and everything that came along with it, and just the history of the athletic program there and the history of the golf program as well, mister Nicholas having played there, and John Cook, Joey Sindelar. There's just the even recent guys like Ryan Armer, who had a great Web dot Com Tour season last year, and bo Hoag's another one who's getting out there now
and he's starting to play well. So just a lot of history and just it was the perfect distance away from home for me, six hours driving and only an hour flight if I needed to get back home from something. I just kind of wanted to go out to Ohio State and Columbus and kind of have something that was
my own a little bit. I had no connections to the school or anything like that, and I thought it was a good opportunity for me to step away from Chicago and home and kind of make a name for myself somewhere else.
Yeah. I think, I mean the climate's got a little bit better too, so with kind of Jack and obviously Jason Day calls Columbus home. Did would Jason Day spending time around the practice facilities. I saw a shot that Nike commercial out there.
Yeah, he did shoot that Nike commercial out there. And he when I was in school at one point my last year, he he came to check out the facility to see if there was you know, if he had any useful order if he wanted to practice out there at all. And I believe he has gone out there and practiced from time to time. He he never came
out and practiced with the team per se. He just kind of, you know, used the facility when we weren't out there just to kind of get away and find a quiet spot to work on his game when he was back home, because I knew he finds his time back home really valuable to him and his family, so he kind of kept it quiet when he was back in Columbus. But every once in a while, you know, you could tell he was just out there, that he'd been around a little bit, which was kind of cool.
And it was really cool to see that commercial shot at our facility because I had no idea that it was and all of a sudden, I look at the video on Twitter one day and I was like, hey, it's building. What's pretty familiar there, So that was cool to see.
It's probably good that he wasn't out there when you guys were, because you know, if he was playing in front of you as a single, you guys would just be standing waiting for him to finish his pre shot routine.
That's a good point. We might get sick too, whatever ailments he's catching it. It was good that he wasn't out there so we wouldn't get those too and get the whole team sick.
I mean, he might have caught some stuff from you, just you know, even being in the facility and being you know subjected to you know, college germs.
That's it. Yeah, that's a good point. It's a really good points from the dorms.
So you know, you're in college, you're playing all the am stuff. You know what, what's some of the stuff that you'll miss most about amateur golf as you now head to the Latin American Tour.
I think the biggest thing to miss about amateur and college golf is just the experiences at every tournament that.
We often got the also just the golf courses that we got to play. Like our first tournament of the year my senior season was the Carmel Cup at Pebble Beach and we stayed in the lodge for four nights and got to play at Pebble Beach four days in a row.
I share a room which my best friend at school, and we were right off the first piece at Pebble Beach and we were just talking like, there's nothing else can really top this experience. We're not going to be able to, you know, find the cooler buddy golf trips than the one we're on right now. Playing at a tournament a Pebble for the next four days. It's just experiences and the unique tournaments like that that college golf and amateur golf lends itself to is really I think
the best part about it. And just the camaraderie of going to these differ amateur events like Sanny Hannah and having the membership embrace it so much, and having events every night and long drive contests and you know, socials with members of the clubs that brought everybody together and just you know, there was serious during the tournament days, but it was also fun at night, and it was fun to just hang out and you know, enjoy, enjoy each other and have some fun.
Yeah, Columbus is awesome golf city. Did you guys you know, obviously have the Scarlet course out there that you primarily used, But did you guys get to play like Mierfield, Seyota Double Eagle out there also?
We did a little bit. We played Mirefield quite a bit in the fall my freshman year because we had the Jack Nicholas Invitational out there. That was our home event that we've hosted that fall, which I believe is possibly going back to there in the next couple of years. I don't know that for sure. But that that was a word on the street a little bit. So yeah, we played out there a town that fall to get ready for that event, and then we play out there
here and there every once in a while. There was never really much need for us to play at a bunch of places around Columbus because Scarlett's such a good test and such a good place to work under game. But we also played out a little bit like if high school the state championship was going on that or if our course wasn't available during the web event, we would play out there a little bit, which is that
course is unbelievable, just an awesome club too. We played a couple of times out at the golf Club in New Albany, which is a pretty which is a pretty unique spot, one of the very few Pete Dykes verses that I enjoy playing. Mm hmm. And then I never played, never played double legal. I've always heard great things about that place, but never had the never had. I know, our team played there once or twice that I was either out of town or back home for the weekend
or something. But I've heard that's a pretty awesome track as well.
Yeah, here pristine conditions, so you know, if you're if you're going one through four mirror field of the golf Club, Scioto and Scarlet course, what what how do you rank them?
Oh? Absolutely? I say question where I think you have to put?
Where are you playing the most times out of ten? Let's I'm not a big ranker, but where are you going to play the most times out of ten? You know, how would you split him up?
If I was going to play the most times out of ten, I would play Sciota first, then I would play Merefield next, and then I would play the Golf Club and then Scarlett And I say it in those order because Siota is the golf that I grew up loving in Chicago. It's your classic just kind of push you in the face, tough, just classic golf course, long, great green complexes, good bunkering. It's just a it's just
an awesome test. And it's just kind of a really nice piece of role in property there in Upper Arlington. It's just it's just a really fun eating holes of golf when you play out there. And then I would say Deerfield next, because it's the turn the course. You see the memorial. There's some awesome golf holes out there. It's really pretty, it's in perfect shape all the time,
and it's fun to play out there. And I say the golf club third, because it's it's a lot of fun to play out there when it's kind of a unique experience. It's a I don't know if it's a place that I'd want to play every single day, because it would kind of lose its mystique to me if I played out there every day, because it's a place that you played maybe once or twice a year and you really enjoy. And then I would just say Scarlet last, just because I played there basically five days a week
for four years. So it's it's really hard. I still think it's really hard, but I would much rather play the other golf courses in Columbus than Scarlett anymore.
Yeah, it's interesting. I was out at Scarlett for that WEB event this year, and it's I mean, that's a great golf course to get to play every day, just because it tests the crap out of your game. It's interesting, like you look at that tournament and you're in year out.
You know, it's one of the few places of Web dot Com plays that's actually like a PGA Tour level venue and you get a little bit different of a leader board where you got you know, par is actually valued as opposed to most of the spots that are just pirty fast.
Yeah. Absolutely, and when that place it's firm, some of those fairways you're just impossible to hit and the greens
are severely undulated. It can just be a place that can just give you headaches playing out there, but it is it's fun to see that web ban go out there and have to be a you know almost us o finish like scoring you know, five unders a pretty good week for a guy, and you know you're good chance that you're probably gonna win or finish pretty high in the field if you shoot five six hunder.
So in terms that you touched on Chicago a little bit, while we're on the golf course subject, what are your favorite spots to play in Chicago and maybe give somebody and your under the radar gem that not a lot of people know about. Obviously everybody knows about the big names, but.
Well, my biggest under the radar gem has to be Nowood. It's a course that if people were looking at overall body of work in Chicago probably leave off the list every time and definitely, someone from outside of Chicago would probably have never heard of Nowood. I know a lot of guys for the Western End last year probably had never heard of Nowood and walked away at the end of the week being like, Wow, that's an awesome track. It's just I don't know how many times you've played
out there, but it's just a cool spot. I think it's just got some unique holes. It's to start, how it kind of loops around the clubhouse the first five holes is really cool and I've just always enjoyed every round of golf I've played out there. But some of my other favorites, I think Scopie pops off pretty high right out there. My freshman year for next Westerns event. Had never known it was a good course before then, and probably a little naive at that age, but still
I was. It's one of my favorites. Butlers up there as well then another cool place to play. Just I think Black Sheep is one of the one of the most fun experiences you can have playing golf anywhere, especially in Chicago. You could play out there from from dawn to desk every day and never get board. All the different options out there, so those are some of my some of my favorite courses in the area.
Yeah, I grew up working at Noelwood, so I worked backroom to junior golf and caddied. So I've walked that golf course like probably and played at twenty five hundred times or something absurd amount. It's so good. It's the best is the membership knows how good it is and they don't care what anybody else thinks. Yeah, yeah, they could care lots about rankings. The you know, black Sheeps have spot. That's I got to get out to this year. I've heard nothing but really good things that Dave Westler,
guy who did it. He's done some cool work with renovations around Chicago area under the rad argument.
I played Black Sheep with him last summer. He was he played golf at Ohio State. Actually around the time my mom put out of Tulsa, so he was on the IgG A board with my mom, so she kind of set that up with him and I was able to. I went out there and played with him and his son, and it was it was a cool experience. It was the first time I'd ever played a course with the golf with the guy who designed it, So I was picking his brain and asking some questions here and there.
So that was that was a lot of fun.
Yeah, that's a cool experience. I just did the same thing down in Orlando last week with Dad Leyton, who's now in charge of Arnold Palmer Design. It's just it's interesting to hear them talk about, you know, the like little challenges and you know what they were trying to do. It's it's cool. Definitely an experience that everybody should try and get one time.
Yeah, that's where all the I feel like random stories of I actually wanted to build this hole this way, but we couldn't because of this. So this is where this this great hole was my plan B for this hole and it actually ends up being, you know, the best hole on the course or something like that.
Yeah, it's it's interesting. It's I think that's one of the cool things about architecture is you could give thirty architects the same piece of land and you'd get thirty completely different golf courses. It's you know, it's really an art underappreciated aspect of golf.
Yeah. Absolutely. I think Dave's working on a pretty big project out in Oregon, I believe called Pacific Gales that's supposed to supposed to be done in the next few years that he's been working at for a while. I get the land like ten or so years ago, and he's just been He's been involved with every single part of the project. So it's something to look out for. That should be a pretty cool design out there.
It's that Pacific Northwest has got to have some of the best golf of any area. It's like so under the radar because I feel like the Pacific Northwest is just there, you know, and nobody really pays attention to it. And it's like you've got Bandon, You've got you've got Wine Valley, You've got Gamble Sands, You've got Chambers up in Washington. But then you've also got like, you know, Dan Hickson's just finishing up a reversible course that's supposed
to be really cool called Sylvie's Rant. I need to spend like two weeks there, I think this summer and just knock it out.
The uh which Hollow Pumpkin Ridge is also an unbelievable golf course. We played the Nike event out there the fall of my senior year, and I couldn't believe how just cool and unique that golf course was. I mean just in dense forests and nature. It is just this kind of beautifully carved out eighteen hole golf course and there's some really cool Part Three's just a lot of unique holes. You never played the same hole twice, it was.
It was really a kind of unexpected gem for me that I always knew Pumpkin Ridge was nice and obviously the USN there with Tiger is a legendary, but I wasn't expecting the course of that awesome. It was really cool.
Yeah, I've heard of that too. They have that web event out there and Vince India was saying he loved that place. It's it's just I just signed the bucket. I gotta get out there. So you know, obviously you're kind of calling card Win. Was the NCAA regional up at coler where you beat you know, great Field. I mean you look down the name and names of that.
You know, you had Toasty from Florida. You had Tom Deetree who's are a one on the Challenge Tour, top three in his first start on the European Tour as a full member. You know, Charlie Danielson and he had four time All American tell us a little bit about that win, and I remember I was playing a tournament that same week and conditions were just brutal.
Yeah, it was. It was cold out there in color which definitely helped the Midwest teams that were there a little bit because I know UCLA came out there in Florida came out there, and Florida State was out there too. They're coming from I mean May and Florida is like the middle of summer, so I know, but there was the conditions were tough. But I we played in snow a couple of weeks before at our home event in Columbus, so the cold wasn't really bothering us too much last spring.
And yeah, winning that event, I was just I was just playing really well. It just had my mind pretty clear.
I was it was either that it was going to be my last event or I was going to play good enough to play one more time for Ohio State and just didn't didn't let the situation get too big or anything, and just plugged away and played some really good golf, started petting really well, and the final round I started on the back nine and we were the last team to go off for the last groups to go off, because I was there's an individual with another teammate, Will Grimmer, but yeah, it was I had no idea
what the other guy with the you know, Florida toast he get shot on his front nine. I turned a three under and I thought I was still going to need to make a bunch of birdies even have a chance, and made a couple more, and then I made a couple of bogies and asked my coach after coming off my seventeenth hole what I needed to do, and I just was asked him what I need to do to make a tens of ways because I knew the low
guy from a non advancing team made it. And he's like, you're leading by one and you're in nscublaze by four right now, And I was like, I just I had no idea. I was like, what I thought, I was still going to be a few behind, and he even wins. So then I just kind of made a couple of good swimmings on the last hole, made to get two cut, and it just kind of happened. I never really had
thought about it that much. The whole week just plugged away, and you tried to keep playing good golf and was fortunate enough to play good enough buff to win.
So you've you know, you won two State ams, you won this, you won it was a lone star invitational too. Are you do you like to know kind of where everybody's at, and you know, are you are you a leaderboard watcher like or are you somebody that just kind of likes to go about their business obviously you know, winning is a tough thing to do and always curious.
Yeah, I'm definitely a leaderboard watcher. There's there's no way around that. For me. I didn't know what the Florida guy was that at the turn, but when I made the turn, I definitely looked and I tried as hard as I could to figure out what he was at, but there was no real leaderboards out there at the State Am. I stare at him just seeing what holes kids are through, you know, if they've got Bertie holes
coming up or whatever. When it's and I point out that I really want to do this in the final round when it's the back nine, and I always talk about with my coach John Perna that you know, you you have you have a strategy to get yourself in a position to be able to contend and when. But when that, when it's the back nine, the final round, whether it be the forces, third round, everything else gets kind of
thrown out the window and it's a different game. You gotta you know, you're gonna have to make some different decisions. You're gonna have to kind of see what other guys are doing, how low you're gonna have to go, how many burgers you're gonna have to make, And I know some people have a very different opinion on that, but that's had the system I've always went with and seemed to, you know, kind of rise to the occasion when it's
crunch time like that. So it's a system I'm going to stick with moving forward, and it's just kind of the way I've always gone about doing it. So yeah, I definitely watched the leaderboards and like to like to know exactly what it is that I need to do, and if it puts a little bit more pressure on myself, so be it. It's just what needs to get done to trying to win the event.
Yeah, imagine to get yourself into that position where you have a shot, you have to be playing pretty well and have kind of full control of the game. So it's you know, a place where you can kind of push put the pedal to the metal a little bit more, and you know you're probably hitting really good golf shots already, right.
Exactly, And you know, you get to that point where you can even be in position to win an event, you have to be playing exceptional golf. So put in a little bit, put a little bit more pressure on yourself and understand, you to make a couple of birdies, isn't isn't really that big of a deal in the grand scheme of the golf even playing that week to get into that position. So you just got to kind of accept it and own up to it and just make it happen.
So outside outside yourself, you know who are who are some guys and some names that you know golf fans should be keeping an eye out that are either playing WEB or Latin America Canadian Tour. You know that could really be great players at the next level, or are still in college for that matter.
Yeah, obviously, coming out of Illinois, Nick Hardy is I'm just really good. He just killed everybody at the state down this year. But I played some pretty good golf to shoot what I did and that second place with him by ten, So that was incredible. I may have had great success at Illinois and other amateur events and US Open stuff like that, so.
I made a joke. I thought I thought I could keep it in if if if I had made the cut of the State am I'm pretty confident that I would have kept it within forty shots of Hardy.
Just yeah, he was. He was on a different level that week. That was just fun to be to be a part of that because I think me and the even me and the guy who finished in third place, we broke the you know, previous scoring record to par for state ams, but we still lost by ten and eleven.
It was that course set up was I mean, it was just for you guys that hit it and just vomb it, and it was just a wedge and putting contest for you guys.
Yeah. Yeah, And he's a he's a really good wedge player and an exceptional cutter. So that was really no surprise when you think about it. But other guys Jonathan Garrick, he went to u c l A, played the Canadian Tour this summer. He's a he's a guy known for a long time. Our samways were old friends and he grew up in California. But he's he's just a really good player, hits it awesome as an awesome short game, and he's he's definitely a guy to look out for.
He's played a couple of web events. I think he played and played in Mexico and Maacoba.
And.
He's just a guy that I just think he's he's really good and you know when whenever it is that he's going to break through and make it to the top level, he's going to do it. And then I mean, the guy played with the college Will Grimmer, he's, you know, the fifty nine kid. I know he'll get a chuckle
out of that. But he played the US Open when he was sixteen at Pinehurst and had a pretty exceptional freshman season, making regals as an individual last year and just had some had some really good finishes and got second at the Jones Cup last year too, which is pretty awesome achievement. So he's he's always a kid that you got to keep your eye on. He knows his game maybe better than anybody else I've ever been around.
Just hits it awesome, throws and darts with his hybrid club and he's just he's gonna be really good for a really long time. Absolutely loves the game of golf and loves loves golf course architecture and everything else too. So he was a fun kid to have on the team and definitely could I learned a lot from Even though he was a freshman. I was a senior last year. It was nice to have a kid on the team like that, and I could take his brain a little bit, and I think it made both of us better. M H.
It's interesting the you know, guys that get it done in different ways. People always talk about like their dream for some I think having guys with different games like to watch, you know, it's like you don't want all the bombers in there, Like that's a good question. Who would you if you were going to pay to watch four guys play golf? I'm a PGA tour, which four would be in that foursome?
I would probably have to pay to watch. I want Steve Stricker in there because from what I've heard from everybody, his wedge game is just absurd. I've seen him hit one WEG shot in my life, and that was when I was randomly at Medna on one Monday and he was playing an outing out there and he hit one into the ninth hole of course one and I like kind of standing right there and it came a flat, It skipped once and it was like three feet behind the hole and it was just like, it's a really
hard wed shot at Madia. It hit that wed shot one hundred times growing up, and just that he was, you know, just out there entertaining guys in a corporate and just threw that little wegshot in there. And I played with Daniel Chopra on a Monday qualifier a couple of years ago for the John Deere and he said his wedge game is just ridiculous, Like he just hits these little balls in there that don't really spin. They just take one hop and stop at whatever yard she
wants them to. So I think that'd be cool to watch. I think Dustin Johnson just because he's kind of a freak, even though playing with my little brothers like playing with Dustin Johnson, but he'd be a fun guy in there. And then I think you'd want to have someone who could just put the absolute eyes out of the ball, maybe even like Lauren Roberts. He just has the silkiest putting stroke. I watched him at the Champions Tour event last year down here in Naples, and it was just
even washing. Him patted in like three footers. It's just smoothest putting stroke you've ever seen. It'd be fun to watch a guy like that just poured in from all angles all day.
You got, you got one more spot is a big cat.
Yeah, it's uh no, it might be. Oh man, now I'm gonna pickle. I would just all to force him, might have to be filled, just so you get the betting angle in there, just so you get to just so you get to watch the money game unlined. And having Lauren robertson there too, just chopping some bombs for some big cash would be a pretty pretty fun spectacle to watch.
Yeah, I feel like Lauren Roberts would negotiate getting some pops and then he would just you know, drain everything all day. He'd probably fill his teammate, you know the old guys. I mean, I guess Strickers old too. You know. I like that you got you got a very interesting group of personalities in there.
Yeah, no, I think that would if we wanted to like have a professional golf money game on ESPN Under the Lights. I think your first foursome of DJ Long, Robert Stricker and Phil is definitely a head turner. I think I'd get the viewers in for sure.
Yeah. You know, that's the thing that bugs me is like, you know, they talk about these like you know, made for TV things, and they always go for like, you know, the big four names, Like, but if you got some different guys with the personality contrast to their games, Like, I don't understand why they're you know, they always want to do these made for TV things with just four guys. Why don't you do like four foursome So there's like a lot of golf being played.
Yeah, yeah, they want to. They want to do like
an under the Light skins game thing. It's got to be like three or four groups, you know, And that way you could at least have you could have the whole field on two holes maybe, but it would be more than just four guys, because then if you got two the guys that are squeezing that you know, made for TV event in between a couple other events and aren't that into it or aren't that aren't playing that great, then it's just like it's not even that fun to watch.
Yeah, I agree. You know, if they, you know, ever put me in charge of something like that, that's what I'm I'm I'm changing. So you know, down in Florida, what's it like? Have you gotten to know a lot of the mini tour guys down there? And like, do you guys you get regular games down there yet?
I've played in a few. I haven't. I moved down just before New Year's uh so I was down a couple of weeks before I left for Columbia and I've only been back two and a half days now. But yeah, I've met a few guys. I've gotten in a couple of games and some local courses down here. I went and played in a minor league Golf Tour event over by Jupiter before I left for Columbia, just to get some competiti of reps. And that's not some major tagon
lingo now, but it's all about the reps. But yeah, just I've got some guys at the club I joined too, and I'm gonna try to play in a few games like that and so many tour events. But kind of that's a nice thing about having full status down there. Now I can set up my schedule so when I'm back home, it's more just getting prepared to try to play as play as good as I can when I
head down to Latin America. So you know, if I play well enough down there, it'll open some more doors down the road and I'll be able to play in some other events and possibly some web dot Com tour stuff. So kind of shifted my focus a little bit from playing and a bunch of the games and mini tour stuff to just kind of use my time down here to get prepared to go play as good as I can on the Latin American Tour.
That's smart. So you've finished eleven last week in Bogata, so you got full status. You know what, uh what country are you most? I mean you're going to be all over Central and South America? Like what are what are some of the sites you're most excited to go see?
Term that I'm really looking forward to. I know that my friends that played on the tour last year said it was awesome. Is the Dominican Republic open at Teeth in the Dog, which is much to my chagrin at Pete Die Golf Course, but I've heard it's beautiful and it's on the ocean, and it's in the Dominican Republic, So put those a couple of things together, you really can't go wrong. So that'll be a fun one. And then some of the some of the more interesting countries,
like there's an event in Nicaragua. My cousin out in San Diego is a huge surfer and he's already expressed that he wants to come caddy for me and in that event because it's twenty minutes away from one of his favorite surf breaks in the world. So I might have a surfer slash caddy down there for that event that week. And I think there's just some really cool I've heard Buenos Aires is just an incredible city, so I'm looking forward to checking that out. And that's the
second event of the season. And yeah, and Antigua is another place that I've heard is pretty awesome. And then probably the last one that's gonna be cool to check out is Ecuador. Playing golf right in the equator is going to be kind of crazy. That's it ten or so thousand feet, which is even higher than bo Guita was, so the ball goes even farther there and it's right in the capital city of Quito, which is right on
the equator. So that'll be just just a unique experience that you can honestly really only find on the Latin American Tour, which is going to be I have never traveled out of the country just because I've always played golf tournaments kind of during breaks, and I've always geared all my travel so much towards golf. It would be cool to almost study abroad and be able to play
golf at the same time. Like I kind of tell people who aren't you don't know too much about golf that I'm almost going down to Latin America's like going to grad school for my golf degree, just studying abroad and getting more experience and playing some events. So yeah, I'm really looking forward to it. It should be a cool time traveling around down there.
Yeah, that is cool. I mean I spent like ten days down in Argentina last year right before I started this thing, and it's cool. Man. I got to play the Jockey Club down there, which is like a Mackenzie course. Really cool. I mean, it's what a great experience to get to, you know, travel around down there, learn, you know, learn how to be a pro in some pretty cool spots. How do you go about figuring out distances that you're hitting the ball when you change altitudes. I've always wondered that.
Yeah, that was a hot topic when we were down there or Bogata. Everyone was trying to figure that out. Ogata. Was it about eighty seven hundred feet or so? Was the course? Was that so it was about twelve to thirteen percent. So we just kind of converted basic yardages of you know what two hundred yards was at that elevation and so down So we just we just kind of did some old school math like that, me and my dad on the bag. And it was a good thing my dad was on the bag because math is
not my forte kind of as a golfer. Unfortunately, I've always had a bit of a problem with numbers, never really succeeded that much in math classes, So having him on the bag was a help. And I also use this app called flag high Pro, which you can plug in at your home course. How fire club goes. You put in all the conditions, like what elevation your home
course is at, how far your bawl usually goes. At each club, you put in the temperature and the humidity and then you can when we were down there, I plugged in how warm it was, what the humidity was, and what the elevation was, and it was converting my club yard just for me. So I just kind of
wrote those down to having this reference. But it was going crazy far down there, you know, me and the group I was playing the practice round with the second practice round day on eighteen four eighty yard part four. We all had like foreigner gap, wedge and pitching ledge
into it. Just some one ninety four. There was a part through the last round and I hit pitching ledge that landed in the middle of the green and rolled out a little past the flag, just because when you get a tea box, it's a little elevation there and you're already a crazy elevation. It just makes the ball fly that much further, and the higher you get it, the further it goes. And you're a pretty high ball
flight players. So yeah, I hit some hit some miron shots that went pretty far and some t shots that went pretty far down there too, which is it's fun to play if you can control it. It can get a little annoying and aggravating if you're losing control of your ball up there and it keeps flying longer than you think it's going too, or not as far as
you think so. But it's definitely a little different. But the apps that they have out nowadays with that flag high sploss so definitely makes it easier for us.
Yeah, I bet it's are you big like track man guy?
Yeah, I use it. I like to use it while I'm in more of my practicing modes. I won't use it a ton this time of the year around tournaments, just because all the information. I kind of want to know what everything is and what it's all saying. So I kind of can overwhelm myself a little bit this time of the year and get a little too technical if I look at too much. But yeah, it's an awesome tool to use when you're working on your game and stuff.
I bet it's just awesome for like wedge wedges, like you know, okay, this is going exactly this number.
Yeah, no, absolutely it's I mean you see every week on two of those guys all have them lined up behind them. And I know from when I've been at some web dot Com events walking with some guys, the tracks Man guys just kind of roam around the range and asking you need to check anything out, You can have them set up shop and get all your distances for that week.
If you want what you know with your game, you know, what would you say your strength is and what where do you what are you working on the most to kind of get your game to the next level where you can be playing on the web and then eventually the tour.
I think my strength is just always been scrambling and somehow shooting scores around even par, even on my worst ball striking days, and back in the day I had some heroically bad ball striking days. The last couple of years, I've been grinding with my instructor on getting more consistent with ball striking and driving the ball and just overall my control of the golf ball.
And we've made some pretty big stride, which has shown in the level of golf that I've been improving too over the last couple of.
Years, so we know we're on the right track there and we can keep improving. But my strength has always been just my short game and shipping and pitching the ball and putting especially they're just kind of par saving putts and just kind of grinding my way to shoot, you know, whatever is I need to shoot that day.
I've always taken pride and knowing that I can miss thirteen greens in around but still shoot even par I think help years you got Texas A and M I hit hit two or three greens in around, still shot seventy one. Just had like twenty one pots or twenty pots or something like that. So I've always had the short game and I've always been able to grind it out. So I know that as long as my ball striking gets better, that part of my game is never going
to leave. Some of those two things come together, it's a pretty good combination and I could shoot some low scores.
Yeah, man, I mean it's it's an art to be able to get the ball in the hole and something that not everybody can do. It's you know, I think my game's opposite. I hit the ball really good and people are always like, how do you shoot seventy six? It's so fucking frustrating.
So we got to think another thing go ahead, and I just need to keep working on is wedges. You just see these pros and these web dot com guys when they get on courses that have good greens. And the conditions are nice. I haven't really seen that on the web dot com yet this year, but it's coming. I guarantee you that they'll shoot them just ridiculously low numbers for the week. And that's just because they're so
good with their wedges and short irons. They just have so much control over them and they can really have the ball doing whatever they wanted to do. So just get into that level and getting to the level when you know you're playing well and you've got some wedges in your hands being able to shoot six, seven, eight under park because you're you know you're going to make four or five birdies with your wedges in any given rounds.
So that's definitely the thing that I'm working on right now and kind of grinding on and is just trying to get my get the level with my wedge game up there too, you know, that pro caliber level.
Yeah, I think wedges with every single level of golf, Like, if you look at somebody that's a tier above you, they're probably a lot better with their wedges. I mean, like it's I don't think it's possible to be too good with your wedges. I guess that's kind of the truth. With anything in golf. But yeah, it's an area where you can improve so much.
I mean, like what Dustin Johnson said last year, he just practiced wedges for the first time last offseason. Then he came out last year and no one could really touch him. I mean, he was playing just at an unbelievably high level of golf and it was just because
he had just started practicing his wedges. And that's the testament to you know, just kind of the freaky is but also testament to how important wedges are and if you if you get your wages going good, it just and that can make you unstoppable when you start hitting everything else.
Well, yeah, he's just he's a freak. It's just crazy to me how little he works and how good he is. But I think he works harder than people give him credit for. So yeah, we got a ton of quick Twitter questions here. You know, there's a lot of a lot of action on your brother who you know. I saw it for the first time at the State AUM
this year. He was on your bag and like I did like a triple take because he's like a he looks just like you, but it's like seven foot two, so you know, who hits it further you or your brother.
Unfortunately, my brother hits it way farther than I do. I like to think it's close sometimes, but it's really not close at all. I mean, he it's to the point where if I don't hit a good, I don't hit my driver. Well, it's two iron up next to my driver, so that always keeps me on my toes.
He's you off first, and I see he's got the two iron, and I see him hit it well, and it was put the pressure on me to make sure I hit my drive good or else I'm gonna be He's gonna be talking some obviously smack about how he drove me again with his two iron. But he's he's insanely long. He's getting a lot better now too. He's his game's getting tighter. He's learned how to put it together, and he's the kid that he can figure out a
couple of things in this game. He's gonna be scary good because he's got exceptional touch for a guy that hits as long as he does too, So I'm waiting for that breakthrough to happen. But yeah, he he bombs up by me.
Unfortunately, is he he's at Florida.
Atlanta, off Florida Golf Coast.
Oh, at that school that had that crazy good basketball team for like a year.
Yeah, exactly, Dunk City.
So you know, uh with that, you know too much of the chagrin. You know, I saw that Will is a member of the push cart mafia.
Yeah, he he does. He does push when he has to play in tournaments and carry his own back, which is it's a little it's a little unfortunate. He cites it on his that he has a scoliosis or something because he's too tall and his back screwed up. So that's what he tries to place it on. He's like, my back's too long to be healthy because one liner he said to me before. So but yeah, he unfortunately he pushes. I'm pretty strong on you know, push cart mafia.
But it's just might feel a little bit of ignorance and hard headedness. But I'm sticking to it.
You know, I'm a recent convert to push kart mafia. I hate to admit it, but just you know, in a tournament doesn't make me any sense to me. Why you would you know, like when you think about like athletic competitions, like, Okay, you know, the shoulders are an integral part of your golf swing. Why would I put like thirty pound bag on my shoulders for four hours? Like, how could that possibly help you.
Four hours? That's being generous. If we're playing at tournament, you're probably carrying it for six Yeah.
Well, I'm thinking that the bags down on the ground for most, you know, for long periods.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, there's that's definitely. Uh, it's an extremely valid point. And I don't I uh people that push that doesn't bother me at all. I completely understand it. I just for me, it's just it's such a small thing. But having to like walk around every green. I've tried
it before, and that just drives me nuts. And like having to like walk around bunkers and maneuver around and when you're playing early in the morning and you're pushing your cart and all the dude's spraying up onto you. Those are just a couple of things that a couple of times I tried it. I did use it for some thirty six all.
Days in college golf, and I have to admit my back and shoulders felt much better at the end of the day. But I'm also kind I have a hardhead sometimes, so I stuck with carrying it. Yeah.
I like the Sunday bag too, but the problem is, like I hate putting it down on the ground all the time. Like somebody's got to come up with one that's got like a good stand, you know.
Yeah. Yeah, that's like a like a little kick thing that could kick out of the top of it, so you could I have like a little steak that keeps your club heads. And because the problem with Sunday bag is the grips get wet because most of the Sunday bags, water just goes right through them.
Yeah, and and it's just a pain of the ask when it's always on the ground. I just I don't know, but I use that for a couple of tournaments this year. I liked it, but I didn't like it, you know. So uh, you know, passe here has a pretty loaded question favorite former Alni and favorite member at Medina. Now keep in mind, I'm a former Aliini, so I'm man.
This is he's put me in a really bad position with this question, asked you and I know I know he did it maliciously too, I would so favorite member at Medina. I probably I'll have to go with Patty on that one. He's uh, He's always a fun guy to see around the club and we've had some really awesome rounds of golf together. We played I think there was two springs to go. We didn't get one in last year, which was unfortunate, but we need to get
another one like this and again we played. We went out on three one afternoon, probably keep off around three o'clock and just me and him. We walked eighteen holes and a little under two and a half hours, and it was just the most enjoyable, perfect day, nice brisk ground of golf. There was no waste of time or anything like that. Fortunately there was nobody in front of us.
And he was giving me. He's given me some crap because I was trying a point at the time, so I was taking a little bit too much time on the green figured out my aim point line and you know, doing sign language to myself, figuring out how how much the put was going to break. But we had some fun out there, and that was definitely one of the most fun guys I've played with around there. And then favorite former line, I I'm sorry, I think I have to go with my man Alex Burge on that one.
We had some we played some great tournaments together and we've had a lot of fun to seeing each other at events. And we had a great championship match at the CDGA at Mollwood. He beat me on the last hole, but it was a great thirty six old final match. He played strop play in that event that year together too, and he's always been a really fun guy to play
tournaments with and see around the events. And I know he's in the golf industry right now working for Excel Sports, I believe, so I look forward to seeing more of him in the future. And he's just he's an awesome guy. I've seen him at Radis Cup events and stuff too, and he's just a fun guy to be around. So I'm gonna sorry to you and Papa on that one, but I have to go with Burge for favorite former.
Alhini's all right, you know, no hard feelings here, but I think mister Mott turtleneck might be a little butt hurt from that one. So you know, what are some of your favorite holes on MEDNA three And you know what are your thoughts on Dokes redo of one?
So my favorite holes on three. I think my favorite, my one favorite hole on the golf course is whole twelve. I think it's just the I know that there's some people don't like that hole. I think it's a little weird. I think the pitch of the fairway is awesome, and just the left to right. It's not a dog leg, but the whole, the entire hole kind of moves left to right, the ground moves left to right. There's that awesome lake right of the green and the holes the
green's perched above it. I just anytime we're playing evening golf out there, whenever we get to twelve, it's just it's a really cool approach shot and you hit some good shots in that hole to walk away over the car.
And then I think one also is one of my other favorite holes, just because that's by far the easiest hole on the golf course, and it's it's always nice when the first hole is a little driver in a wedge, and especially to anyone you're taken out there for the first time you play hole one with them and they're thinking, oh, this course isn't too bad. It's not too hard, and then the course just likes to punch in a face
a couple of times from two through eighteen. So one's just a fun hole because it's a really easy starting hole. It's a good way to get the round started. And then dope of course one. I think there's definitely some quirks about it. There's some interesting things that he did, but overall, I think it's it's a really fun golf course and the blessing you know. Of course one was just a pretty uninspired design before them redo and the back then especially was quite boring with a bunch of
par fours in a row. It felt like you played the same hole almost eighteen times out there, and I did have a lot of fun matches on that course growing up, but it was nice to have him come in and spice it up a little bit and give it a lot more character and just make it a lot more fun to play. Now there's some the front nine's awesome bell for what he said to that whole
of the great golf will now. So yeah, I mean, I really there's a lot of people out there that are gonna that don't like what Dog did at all with one. I think it's kind of quirky or whatever, but it's not it's not a little course three like Course one had always been. Now it's its own unique golf course. And we're in a position now at the club where we're gonna have three unique, eighteen whole golf courses, which is something not a lot of other clubs in
the country can say. So I think that's going to be really cool.
Yeah, yeah, it's uh, let's say, you know, I think Olympia used to be four, which is crazy to think about, but you know, a Dinah, Yeah, it's I think you've got your three is just you know, in my mind, it's it's really hard. I think it needs a little bit of character. I think everybody knows my my feeling for the Jones family is not one of you know,
of warm, fuzzy feelings. So I'd love to see that one get, you know, a little bit of a facelift by someone that you know doesn't believe in just dismantling character. But the I'm excited to see one in two when it's done. But so let's use a couple of quick questions here, and we're running up on our fifteen, so we got some rapid fires from Brett. What's your favorite golf course? Hot Dog? I know this is an important question for him.
Man, it's I'm gonna put it in the hot dogs family because it's not a hot dog done but Olympia fields further code Olympic Clubs burger dog is unbelievable to transmiss out there last year, and it's a hot dog shaped. I guess you'd call it Patty on a hot dog bun, but it's a burger with cheese in the middle of it, and it's just it's unbelievable. I had my brother was caddy for me out there last year, and he the two rounds I put out there he might have had
in a practice line. I think he had eight or nine and I had I had less than that, and I only had three or four. But they're incredible. He was every time he passed a halfway house, he had like one in his bib and one in his hand. He was just chowing down him. This I think the best food he's ever aten. But uh yeah, for me too, that's definitely my best golf course hot dog I've had anywhere.
You know, Skokie's got a really good hot dog, I think too. They do they split the hot dog, which I think is like so underrated. You know, they split it down the middle and then put it on the grill. I think that's like the you know, it's it's a key to a good hot dog. Yeah.
Absolutely, the guys out at Halfway House at course you'll do that too. If you tell him to the butterfly it for you, they'll split it and then throw it on the girl. That's how my dad because always got him done out there. So yeah, absolutely, that's a great call. It's uh definitely definitely spices it up a little bit and makes it better.
I actually heard from my fiance who's in the ad world and is that hot dogs are gonna be like the new Burger, which I don't buy it, but that's what she says. So yeah, it's good good news for brus.
I'm a huge I'm a huge burger guy too, so I think that's why I gravitated towards the burger Dog. Olympic Club because it combined combine the best you know, ninth pole snack and probably my favorite American cuisine of a cheeseburger.
So hit a home run for me there, all right, Olympic Club, it's on the list just for the burger Dog, not just you know, because of the great golf course. So what's the purest boom tower you've ever hit in your life? And how many alarms do you set to wake up in the morning. This is from Logan and I just I'm curious about the purest boom tower.
Logan he was a teammate of mine at Ohio State. He's fun, you got to have on the team. Countless great memories from our time together at Ohio State. But
purest boom tower I've ever hit. I'd like to first clarify with a boom tower is my teammate Sean Bush came up with boom tower our freshman or sophomore year because we have this huge cell tower at the end of our range at Ohio State, and depending on where we're hitting at on the tee and what the winds out that day, if you hit a good enough drive, you can actually hit the tower on the fly and it makes this huge noise of the ball just rattling
around in all the metal there. So he did it one day freshman year and just the all boom power and we just it stuck with our whole team and whenever a guy hit a big t shot and a practice round or anything like that that would always get
called out. But the purest one I've ever hit was probably at Regionals last year on the last hole at black Wolf Front on the meadow of course, and I poll it was just tough win and tough te shot and I just sat up there and bombed a little cut out there, and it was it was a tough t shot because I knew I had a one shot lead, and that was a shot I had to navigate around and was able to hit one out there pretty good and left myself a short iron into the green instead
of a mid or long iron. So that's definitely the one when I saw that question was on the docket, stuck out in my mind that I had to bring up as my purest boom tower.
Yeah. I mean, there's nothing better than hidden, just a pure golf shot under intense pressure. Yeah.
Yeah, it's kind of why we practice and plays to make the most of those opportunities.
Yeah, it's weird. I don't know how you feel, but I get I'm nerveier early in rounds than later in rounds.
Yeah. No, it definitely can depend on the circumstance a little bit. But yeah, especially what I've always found tough is the first day in a big tournament, kind of just getting those first three or four holes out of the way, because those could be you know, you're the club maybe feels a little heavy in your hands, or when you're walking around at your feet feel a little lighter.
You're just not fully comfortable in the situation yet, So those can be the the most nerve wracking moments of the toughest ones to navigate around, just waiting to get comfortable in the round.
Yeah, so let's see best Illinois like as a high school junior golf tournament, Like, what's the best one that you played in?
And just in the state of Illinois. And this is from Derek.
I think the most memorable one for my junior golfer in Illinois has to be the the Medina Shriner Tournament that was held out at Medina every spring thirty six
holes when I was growing up. It was on courses one and two one in the morning, two in the afternoon, and which has recently switched that I know they've been playing course three the last couple of years, which is it made me very jealous, but yeah, just everyone would thanks and come out, and obviously it was me going out to my home course to playing a tournament, and it was just the blast, eating lunch in the clubhouse in between the rounds and getting to play the two
courses I grew up on, and it was always Course two. It was only sixty three hundred yards and not a lot of trouble on it. It's tight, but it was pretty short and pretty easy. But everyone seemed to play better in course one. And everyone got to course too. The greens are smaller and a little quicker, and it seemed to give people headaches. So it was always it was just a lot of fun playing that event with
all your friends. And you know, back in high school and middle school, getting to miss a day of school for it too. It's just always good memories.
Cool. It's I mean, I always remember junior whenever you got to play a great golf course was the best. You know, it's getting off the local munis and onto the country clubs was always fun. So we'll end with a couple quick hitters here. So golf tournament you most want to play in in twenty seventeen.
I don't know. Oh well, if it's a twenty seventeen probably the US Open. Okay, I'd love to get through qualifying for that. I made it through to sectionals last year and didn't play that well a sectionals, but I'd love to have another chance at that. And I think if I'm looking at tournaments to play in this year, yeah, definitely, the US Open sticks out is number one on my list.
Mm hmm. Yeah, that's a good one. So if you were, you know, if you were in a PGA Tour event, who would you most want to be paired with for the first two rounds of your first PGA Tour event.
Oh, that's a really good question. Probably guys that would that would just be a fun time to play with. Random one, but this sticks out, Jerry Kelly. He seems like he'd be a super fun guy to have the first experience with it. You know, he'd make you feel comfortable and he'd just be a relaxing guy to be
out there with. You know, it wouldn't It'd be tough to play in a first tour event with a you know, a huge name or a guy that is super serious out there, because whenever you're playing a first event, whether it was a first big amateur event from here or usam or something, it could be you know, a little intimidating. So being with guys that would make it easy and as enjoyable experience as possible be awesome. So I'd say
a guy like Jerry Kelly. And this goes against everything I just said too, but it'd also be just sweet to play with Tiger Woods in a two event. That would just be my dream. So I gave two exact opposite answers to the spectrum there. But that's what I'm sicking with.
Yeah, you have like everything that you don't want with Tiger, big crowds. He'd probably be a nice guy. New Tiger is a nice guy on the golf course. Yeah. And then so you know five horses that you most want to check out and see in the near future, so you know, kind of like your five bucket list places you want to play.
That's a good one too, think shore Acres. I've never played the Shore Acres for I'll put two Chicago ones in their Shore Acres and Old Elms. Those are two places that I've never been up to in the Chicago land area and that I'd really like to check out for. I want to head up to Sand Valley. I've always played kind of golf Wisconsin My family's always gone up to Kohler and Aaron Hills for some family trips, so I think to head up to Sand Valley up there too.
It would be awesome. Another kind of Midwest one. Crystal Downs. I've always I've heard nothing but awesome things about that place, and it's not too far from Chicago, and that's kind of another area course that I'd like to knock out. And then other than that, just kind of.
The I think the biggest one on my list is just the Cypress Point. We played out at Pebble in college, and I'd been out and monerated before, and I played a lot of courses in that area, but the one that you.
Always drive by, and you know, we hopped out of the car and walked back to the cliffs a couple of times to check out sixteen fifteen at Cypress. It just looks like it's heaven on earth. So that's that's probably at the top of my list right there.
Yeah, I mean, that place looks so good. My grandpa, I guess, used to get he'd get this two week he knew a member out there, and he'd get a two week pass to play out at Cypress. Back in the day. Like I think this was in the sixties or seventies, and one time he had a friend come out and like he was so pissed because his friend really wanted to see pebble, so he had to leave Cypress for a day to go play pebble.
And that's an awesome story. I'm jealous of my mom there with Cyprus because I think she played either three years in college in an event there, maybe all four years. So she says she's played Cyprus around thirteen to fifteen times. So that's and you know, Cypress to her, she's like, oh, yeah, I've played out there quite a few times. It's not really a big deal to her. She's like, oh yeah, it's a beautiful golf course, it's a beautiful piece of property.
And I'm like, it's Cypress Point. It's like, you know, it doesn't get really any better than that. So I'm still waiting on that one.
Yeah, yeah, me too, just got it. It's a place you just patiently wait, all right. And last question here, who's your favorite architect alive or dead? To play.
Cheth Rayner. He just there's just something about I can't It's just every time I go to a Seth Brainer Place. I know, I'm just gonna play a super classic golf course.
I'm going to know exactly what a few of the holes are going to be like, I'm going to know, you know, the kind of overall strategy of how he wants you to play the golf course and where you need to attack, and the holes that are going to be available for you to make some birdies on and the holes that you're going to have to navigate around.
So I've had pretty good success on Seth Rainer courses in the past, and I've never really played a Seth Rainer course that I haven't loved, so I would have to say Rainer.
Yeah, I mean really good. Everything he said so true. I just I got to cross another one off last week at Mountain Lake. Just you know, can't go wrong when you build a golf course that is centered around you know, the greatest golf holes you know of all time. It's just if you build your core strategy around there, it's like really hard to mess up in my mind.
Yeah, absolutely awesome. Man.
Well, hey, I hope everybody listening got to hear. But give TK a follow and add them to your favorite players On a Latin American Tour, which kicks off in a couple of weeks. Tk's really good Twitter follow too, so looking forward to following along while you start your journey. And best of luck, and we will be uh, we'll be cheering from the sidelines.
Man, absolutely, thanks for having me on. And I love everything you're doing with the golf course overviews and the template holes all that stuff. It's it's awesome, and love reading all about it. So keep doing what you're doing with the Frida egg. I love falling along and love reading your stuff.
All right, man, Well we'll get a game I'm in here soon when I'm either down in Florida or up here in Chicago, so be well.
Man, absolutely looking forward to it. Thanks again,