Will Zalatoris Talks Injury Comeback, Augusta National, & Much More

the great major championship golfers in the sport. So looking forward to Will hitting back to the PGA Tour. And was great to chat golf with him for about an hour and a half. So before we get to Will, now's a great time be a better golf fan this year. Join Friday Golf Club. It's our membership, it's our community. It is a place to talk about golf on our forums, read more about golf, and have more fun with golf. Obviously, the PGA Tour is kicking off this week at the

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It's one hundred and twenty dollars a year and you can join at the Frida Egg dot com without further ado. Let's get to will ZL Tours, all right, will I think the billion dollar question, how how are you feeling? How's the back?

I'd rather you like actually be a candidate to blowing them out and then we go ahead and we just know for sure. So it lasted two years and then I ended up doing the fake disc route, which a lot of guys have done it in their neck like Jack Eichel in the NHL Stricker just got his in his neck. Tiger announced that he had one done, and it's a game changer. I mean, it's like all these guys like when you're doing all these like stretching for your back and whatnot, like every modality that you can

think of, I've done it. Like I'm at that point with it where I'm like, look, I've I've purchased my back at this point, like to get back to this point. So, I mean, I think the thing that has helped me a lot was I just all of the height that I had in my disc was just gone, Like I had a back of basically like a fifty year old, and so I needed to figure out a way how

to get the hype back. Otherwise it was like, hey, we're either going to have to fuse you, which is the death sentence basically at my age, or you know, we want to wait as long as we can, as we think the technology is going to get better. Had I waited or had I done this a few years ago, like, yeah, maybe I wouldn't have been in this situation now. But the thing I would say is that the technology only got better. So like this go around, you know, it was eight weeks of no putting and then I was

back putting. When I did the micro diskectomy. I was out for five months before I touched the golf club again. So I mean, this one was a little bit harder because mentally than it was physically, because you know, the other one it was just kind of like, all right, you're trying to get back to where you were. This one is like, hey, we're fixing something in here and we think it's going to work, but we don't really have a lot of data on it, at least at

your age. And the part that I thought was so cool was that I came back like a three quarters of an inch taller, like literally, so I'm not lying. I'm actually six to now, you know, but the thing

that like that's got to bump it to six three. Yeah, I know, right, but it's it's kind of funny how like when I saw some guys after your time off like gutten taller, I'm like, yeah, I have, but no, I just I think the all of we checked all of the boxes in the twenty twenty hindsight, you could look at it and go like, yeah, we could have done this faster, but it also wouldn't have been this effective.

So like for two and a half three months, I literally just played as much golf as I possibly could, and the surgeons were like, hey, we want you to go find your limit, like go walk, go push it, you know, push a car, like just don't carry a bag. Like we're over that at this point. So I mean I just went out and played as much golf as I possibly could. I mean, we we messaged a little bit of like I just went and played anywhere new and fun and just kind of made the game fun

again and was traveling with some buddies. So it was cool. It was actually kind of a fun recovery as opposed to like kind of it on my ass and you know, waiting for you know, towiling golf club between my hands until I get the okay to go.

I be? You know David Price, who the rules to Pischon Tours, a head pro at the club that I grew up at, Benry in Dallas. He basically told me that in college because he went to the University of Texas. He said, Ben Crenschat would go play thirty six holes and he was just the athlete, like he would go find ways to make par he'd you know, go make up and downs. And then you'd have Tom Kite who'd hit golf balls for twelve hours until he'd need a

new sandwich because the grooves were gone. You know, those were the two opposites that I saw. And he was like every pro that I've ever talked to, whether it's been Landy, Watkins, Leech, Travino, go play. And so that's always kind of been my mindset is it's just always been kind of like play it for fun. And I just kind of lost that for a while just because it was like go work on your swinging, figure out

how to get out of pain, whatever. But you know, going to cal Club, going to Cyprus, Albert National, Childress Hall, you know, Dallas National just reopened. I remember at Brook Hollows. So it's been fun. You know, it's been kind of fun bouncing around and playing some cool places and you know, kind of the for fun of it, I guess, you know, kind of the get done with the round and go

have a beer with the guys type thing. That's the stuff that we all kind of enjoy and sometimes it's kind of easy to get lost in that into her life a little bit.

like that was really cool. And then you know, going from the all natural to kind of the opposite of doctor Howard's course, which is all fog yo man made insanely manicured to the nines. You know, he did a little article and a little deal on his golf course and he just wants to make it for him, like him and his family, and it's it's just it's fun. It's cool to see the polar opposites of it all. And you know, Dallas in particular has had a lot of building going on with was it Blue Jack Ranch,

and then we have Maverick going in. We've had p Day, Frisco go in, you know, so we've had a lot. I mean, so I think on that side of it's kind of fun seeing the development side of it, of the place reve life for the last twenty years of school. But on the other side of it. Tool On the other side of it too, which we kind of talked about earlier before we got on, is all we have is land and a lot of oil and a lot of money in Texas. So there's a lot of golf

courses and a lot of people moving here. So it's only going to get better.

you're playing about it or playing it. Have your thoughts about golf changed at all?

holy cow, Like I've the four or five years. I know that, especially when you hear someone when they're like young, like, man, I've really lived through some stuff. I'm like, No, the last five years has been crazy, Like I've really kind of been around some some wild stuff for or at

least in my sport. But no, I think going and playing and I would say playing new golf, old golf, it's opened my eyes to the fact of I think when we first for having the conversations of the driver ball, and it was first presented to the pros in general, it was presented in a way where it was like, we're gonna take everything so far back that it's like, hey, we need to take this little steady rise and we need to get this thing so far back down so

that all of these seventy four hundred plus yard golf course isn't you know now it's seventy six if they're brand new, you know, what do you know? How do we minimize that? And I think at the time, the way how it was presented was hey, a plus people see, you guys are gonna be on board. This is what we're gonna do, and it was kind of like a whoa, whoa,

wha whoa, Like let's break down piece by piece. And obviously you have the side of you know, the manufacturing side where they're trying to protect you know, hey, this is how we've done things for a very long time. You have the maybe you could say purist if you will, where they're saying, hey, these old school golf courses, you know, these bunkers where people were supposed to be hitting drivers, you know, neck and neck with even regular golfers are

carrying these bunkers now. So I think where the middle ground has come is that it's not so much, and this is how it should have been presented in my opinion. And again this is just somebody from the PGA tour perspective. I'm not in the mass audience. I come from a community of two hundred and fifty. Looking from this side out, I guess I would say that they're trying to get what basically is a one yard increment every single year to just flatten, just get it to where it goes

to maybe half a yard for ten years. The manufacturers are going to figure out this difference. They're too good to not figure it out. I just think at the time that was so much where the example that I used was like take number eleven at bay Hill. Now number eleven at bay Hill is a terrible example, but we had the player, we had this meeting in bay Hill. So this was my argument, and I've been saying it for three years, so I'm just gonna stick with it. But the argument that I had is that I always

hit driver there. I aim at the left water and I peel a fade, knowing that if I overdo the fad it's going to go on the right bunker. Right. Well, the difference is is that the guys that all of a sudden if now that ball is going to be drawn back, the other guys who were hitting driver were all of a sudden, I was hitting wedge maybe nine er and in I have hit lob wedge in there

when it's been down. When now I'm moving that back to nine eight seven, whereas the guy who was hitting nine eight seven before is now hitting seven six five. I'm like, I will take that fight all day long. You know, if someone's two clubs shorter than me, like, that's just going to benefit the longer guy, which I think is when Rory kind of switched his stance a little bit, going from really anti to four. I kind of once it was kind of presented in a way

that made sense. Then I think that's where I was like, Okay, I get it. I didn't want someone to be like, hey, what driver do you play? Like, well, I played a new one, but it goes if you try, it's going to go twenty yards shorter. And it's like, well, how hell are we supposed to sell golf clubs as pros, you know, being ambassador's form, Like, that's not if they

were to pull that back that far. So I think that's where like the communication up front at first was a little rough, and then I think it finally refined itself. But I know that that's where it's like when you talk your question was more about the game of golf in general, but I know I took it to that direction. But I think with me, it's like kind of seeing the old and the new coming in in Texas. That's been on the forefront of my mind a lot.

level of the game, and I understand that sentiment. I do think, like the reality when you play recreational golf, and if you're aware of what's going around you, you see, like I have buddies who are like sixteen handicaps who hit the ball three hundred yards and it's like where they hit it is like a complete crapshoot, you know, it goes like it goes miles offline, and it's like, well,

like this probably isn't it. It's not. I think like maybe the messaging problem is that it isn't just a professional golf issue in the distance the thing I struggle with on the professional golf level. And I'm curious where what you think about this is like the way the driver heads evolved even during like your time out there, where this for the forgiveness has gotten so great that it almost has become less It has become less and less important to hit the center of the sweet spot on a driver.

Real quick? Draw it back to where the longest guy is two hundred and sixty yards, Like that's real easy, Like instead of this walking back eighty yards to this new tea that you guys are so proud of that costs one hundred grand to build. How about we played the old tea and then that saved this a little bit of time there. Now that walking in between holes gets faster, I'm all for ball going way shorter, but it would be you know, it has to be done

the right way. I think. Where my the issue where I kind of got lost with it is when the talk of bifurcation in general, I'm like, you look at it in terms of a player development. Does a kid who let's say is getting really like, let's say there's just a pro level a PG tour, decides to bifurkate.

The problem with that is in general, does a kid now play what's in theory inferior equipment while they're in college and they're going through development to get to the PGA tour, or do they play what's in thought of superior equipment and then they get to the tour and they play something completely different? So like there's no win there. But when it comes to yes, like are there more

people just randomly hitting it miles offline and really really far? Yes, but I would my personal stance of it is extremely drastic and probably would be something that would be totally ignored. But I'm like, look, when I'm at home and I'm playing in Dallas, I'll play thirty six holes in five hours by myself. Like I love playing fast and I love whizzing around as much as I can. I don't like playing the back tease if I played the afternoon round either, just because I want to mix it up

on some holes. But so that's where I'm like, look the amount of times that I swear I got I'm on a par three on tour and it's like we're like walking it off and it's like perfectly two hundred, like right on the number. I'm like, are you guys trying to get here? Like I'm just kind of curious, like like why is it always two hundred, like right on the number, Like you might have like a plus six or a minus six for the updown or whatever, but I'm like it's always right there. But yeah, I mean,

I do agree that miss hits has gotten easier. There is a little bit of the bombing gouge that has definitely helped a lot in terms of strategy. You know, like when I my first tour event I ever played in, It's twenty seventeen at Rivira Number ten. I think it was like sixty percent went for it and now it's like ninety five percent or going for it, and so there is a little bit of that aspect to it.

But yeah, I mean when you see something kids in college and they're just like they're just popping off like one eighty five one ninety ball speeds, that part of it is ridiculous. Like that's something that I'm just like, yeah, I see the trend. I know where this is going. But then it's like you always have to think about the common golfer too, because it's like we're at a golf boom post COVID, we have most golfers we've ever had, you know, playing in the United States. Ever, like, let's

not make this a detriment. And I think at first that's kind of how it got presented, was now everyone's going to hit it way shorter, and it's like that's not like, let's not piss off the people we just got, you know. So I don't know, I I wrestle with it. I don't know for the recreational golfer, I am intrigued to try the prototype ball. I haven't I to be totally honest with the titleists, will probably give us some prototypes pretty soon to just kind of try and get

our feedback. They won't be the final ball, they always do that, but they're really obviously looking at the future. Forty pits in that crew there are so freaking good that That's why I'm like, what are you going to to do? Like drop back for a year for three yards and then they're going to find a way to get it figure that out, Like, yeah, I might go a little crooked, but no one's going to really notice that.

I mean, if anything, guys can be like, god, I just need to figure this out my golf game, Like what is this? You know?

talked about, the ball would go further less offline. And I think then, like what you were talking about with the with the I'm going to nine iron, they're going to six or seven. If you're going down to a let's just call it like a a six iron and they're going to four iron, that fairway rough dynamic might have like a little bit more of a sure quill waiting right for sure. And that's like the game got. The game got so far out of balance that I I don't know how you put the genie back in

the bottle without a like huge change. And I do I do agree with you on on the the the kids growing up, like what what do they do? But I think baseball, I mean, like I'm I'm actually would be curious to hear like a baseball scout talk about like how do they how do they figure out which kids can transition from aluminum to wood bats without like losing power? You know, Yeah, it's fascinating. I didn't expect to get there, get here, there, get to this topic.

This's early, but I you know, before we I mean, we could talk about this for for hours. But I I'm curious, you know, you with these back injuries, I imagine that you've worked on your putting a ton. Yeah, and I think, like, listen, the putting. Your putting has been uh, you know, straw on the interest of of widespread audience over the years. You switched a broom, and I think like one of the things that is fascinating people like get mad about people switching your broom, but

like you're learning a completely new motion. It's a completely different style of putting. Like you've put it one way your whole life. You go to you know, you went to obviously the arm block, and then you went to the broom. How much more comfortable are you now after a couple of years than say that first year when you switched.

to use a broom. I think I had just kind of figured it out myself talk to some of the older guys and kind of how they had used it, and then just kind of gone from there, you know, talk to Sam Han from you know Lab and I. You know, the thing that's so cool about it is that you kind of still have to make it your own. And yeah, it was a completely different tool to learn

how to use. And I think like the part that's fun about it now is I've always been really linear and I've I've always anytime that I got really off, I would not be able to see my like a straight line, and so it would be like that on comfort would kind of come from there, and so I think when I went to the broom, it just immediately cleaned up, where everything just gave me like straight lines to just kind of aim at every single puts a

dead flats straight putt. And so kind of what I've worked on with Blair over the last couple of months is like, hey, get a PhD. And how you see

greens red and how you see your lines better? And that immediately kind of freed me up to be way more process oriented as opposed to like, oh I hope I make this, you know, like that kind of you know, four foot lag is like I used to jokingly call it, you know, So it's like I think the part for me now is it's like I had kind of tried so many different things for a while with putting that I needed to try something new and then stick with

it and then immediately it clicked. And learning how to use it, I think, is something that it's like it's a skill, like it's it's like anytime that I go back to like old putting mechanics, like I will pull the living crap out of the ball, like it's it's really funny, like it's like this thing is like I'm

holding this in. There's two ways to basically putt with a broom at least like how Sam Honill tell you is you have the right hand motor, which that's just kind of sweeping from underneath, and then you have the triangle, which is kind of how Adam Scott putts and how I try to mirror it putting. And at that side of it is like everything just kind of gets locked in.

You see your line, and then you go from there and you rock it, and I think that's just it's made it so simple for me, and that's the biggest difference. And so when I was kind of like, I didn't really putt very well through kind of the start of this year, and I was I was hurting pretty bad. I mean, I probably shouldn't have even really started this year. But I think the thing that this time has given me is just a lot of time to just work on my short game in general and really learn how

to use that thing. And so you know, when you're in Dallas and you have guys like Scotty and Jordan and some other you know, really good players, you kind of learned really quickly where your game's at, even if you're not playing in tournaments. And so yeah, it's made putting fun again. That's the thing for sure. I think is probably the best way to kind of put it.

So doing the Monday shooting sixty six is and going being on a flight home that afternoon really wasn't that fun. And so having to really kind of work my way through that kind of gave me a lot of the belief in what I was doing. Now. Of course, there are moments where it's like, yeah, like what the hell is going on? You know, I work my tail off

and I'm you know, playing terrible. I think that's where it just gives you the appreciation of when it's like you have those moments to like win a tournament or whatever where it's like, yeah, I've been through it like this, these are the this is the scards issue that I have. But I've always succeeded, like at every level that I've played at, where it's almost like, you know, it's like, oh, we had a decent junior career, Well he didn't want won the US Junior and a bunch of amateur events

his senior year. Going into his freshman year of college, well he was okay in college. You want a couple of times like other players have done a lot more at wake, and then it was like all of a sudden, I leave early, I have a year where I try to turn pro that didn't really work out. I finally get my status through Cornfiry, then I have COVID, and then I'm stuck on Corn for another year. So like there was kind of a little bit of like more so just dealing with the junk of just being a

pro where it's like, Okay, when's my next start? How am I going to go? You know what? You know, here's my end goals. So like when things weren't really going that well, you still kind of like, all right, I've always succeeded no matter where I've been, Like I've wanted every level you know, I'm going to find a way to get there somehow, someway, even if it's an insane belief. But that was just kind of where I was with it, and I tried a lot of different things.

You know, I worked with a lot of different coaches, but I think like the simplest method that I've come up with, and it's like it's just natural, Like now, that's just it's like when I picked that up, it's actually made whenever I pick up a short putter better,

you know. So it's just it's stuff like that where it's like I know how I like to putt, and as opposed to trying some other method or hey, this doesn't work, let's try something completely new, it's like, now, let's just you're really good at this, let's stick with that.

ever since then. And it's like sometimes even just trying different stuff helps you with the you know, it's like the opposite of everybody's like just go lock yourself on a putting green and hit the three footers. Well, like sometimes that does not help, you know, Like yeah, I.

in all the regular events where it's like I'm leaving Sunday to go to Palm Springs. Am I leaving for two weeks? Or am I leaving for six? I don't know? So you know, I think you know that part of it is uh.

what well, you know, what's going to happen. And coming out and having a top ten in a major, you know, finishing second again, you know, I think was pretty solidifying where it's like, okay, like on any given week, I can play good. It's just a matter of let's get healthy.

And I really like I was kind of getting by by cortizone shots, you know, where it was like getting them every quarter and that, honestly, like it kind of affected a lot of my putting because I'm standing taller with the broom like you know, putting with something that's forty five plus inches. You know, I would putt for hours and hours like you said, where it's like he'd be on the putting green it's like, oh my god,

I missed a three footer. I'm gonna go hitting nine million of them and it's like, well, that's not good for a guy with herniated diss in his back either. By the way, Like this isn't just because I have a big sea bend and you know at the time of my golf swing, it's like this, this is the mixed bag of both. Like I'm not just like hitting a million golf balls and ignoring my putting either, Like if anything, I'm overworking my putting and that's causing more issues.

And so like now getting back to like just playing where as opposed to like you know, doing all of that where it's just so much like granular work and putting hours and hours and hours in it's now it's just so nice to just slap the mirror down, check my eyes, you know, do a few speed drills and sick. All right, let just keep a moving. Let's go play some golf. What do you guys want to play for? You know that stuff that I'd missed for years, you know, but like when I really I think in twenty three

was probably the scariest it had been. And I made myself busy by going back to school, you know, this go around, I try to make golf as fun as I could with upon my comeback, where it's like, all right, the fun of golf had been taken away from me for two years, Let's go play some fun golf. Like, let's go play some new places, like let's go you know. I had the California and at cal Club for one night, and then the next morning I was picked up by a buddy at five am. I went and played Cyprus

like like you know, stuff like that. It's like for the love of the game type thing, you know, getting up early, you know, stuff like that where yeah, it's just kind of fun to do it again. Where I think, you know, there were times where it's like I was so frustrated with my game and my body felt so bad. It's like man, I'm on tour and this sucks. Like this,

this is no fun. So getting back to that thing, I think when you've gone through things that even as simple as like driving four and a half hours to save like six hundred bucks on a rental car like seven or eight years ago, it kind of puts things in perspective when you're sitting here now all these years later. You know, TJ Tour equity owner Winter on tour and you're like, damn, I got to sit this one out for six months. It's like, thanks gonna be a lot worse, dude, It's gonna be a lot worse.

So you know, like I think I think the year I finished second, I played five and five and eleven, and even I think another year I played five and eleven and like one or two wonder in total, Like just ball striking my way around and putting him in the right like Ken high in the right spots, being really good at lag putting for one, I mean, just

knowing where to miss it. Like I just feel like around that place, anytime that I've played poorly, it's just blown like forty and I've just misjudged wins like crazy, you know, winds bouncing all over the place like they normally do. But yeah, I just I think the part that I love about that place is that it's like there's it's the one place to go every year and there's never like there never is anything to lose. But it's like, all right, I finished second in three majors.

Now I really don't care for looking at silver every night I go to bed, you know, So I think that part of it too early on in my career, having the second that close has just kind of freed me up when I go there. But yeah, I just

I love. It's hard not to just fall in love with that place, you know, Like I get so arrogant when I play there, Like internally when I play that, I'm pulling off shots that even my cat he's like there was one year that I was hit it right at the bunk around eight off the tee, and I had a gap like two and a half feet with a bunch of mud on the ball, and and I was like, I'm in thirty second. I really don't care.

Like if this ball hits the tree, we make set, we make seven or eight, like we're gonna finish forty fifth, Like like this ball needs to get through the trees. I've hit it through the trees, made Birdie and he's just like sick. You know the memory of Augusta, you know, you know, to get the crystal whenever you make the Eagles too, so like you know, I've drinking out of those whenever in the off season you come home, you're like,

damn this, I want some more of this. But Scotty and Jordan too, growing up with them them having the success there right away, I think he's also just kind of freed me up around that place. But yeah, it's just it's just so fun the buzz around that place. Like I think, I it's the event that I embrace the mouse for sure, because I think it's you know, it's changed my life in a lot of different ways,

that event. So it's it's kind of one of those where it's like even with all the dynamics of the tour changing, like if I'm not in the signatures, like I may go to the South African Open because the winner gets the spot and the masters in the top three Narder qualified are in the Open Championship, where it's like, yeah, that's what I'm That's what that's why I play this game, Like that's you know, we have a lot of cool stuff on tour and all, but it's like this is this is the main the main treat.

miss it. And then the targets of having makeable birdies are so small, right, very that all pure combination of all those factors.

times up in New York. Was super early on a Monday, and I was just thinking I was gonna have a nice little cruise into my week play the back nine at the Gusts at eight am, and he goes, hey, do you want to have a game, And I'm like, what am I supposed to say? No? Like? And so I ended up joining him for the back and watching him like practice the lags and like go through the

different sections, like the putting. Like it was the most worthless nine hole practice round I've ever had personally for my game in terms of what I did that day, because I did absolutely nothing and just was over my shoulder the entire time watching what he was doing like anybody else would do, but watching him dissect the different sections of the greens and the different spots and chipping it kind of confirmed a lot of like what I thought, But it was even more in the sense of like

picking his brain on like of little what he would give me, you know, obviously like on twelve, of like where he would aim. Stuff like that. I think was there's just so much strategy that gets involved where it's like to your point, like you can hit something in the fat side of a fairway, but it's gonna be that much more destrimental on your second shot. Like thirteen, if you hug the trees up the left side of the you know, the left middle half of the fairway,

you're gonna be sitting on a dead flat lie. Now, granted, it's gonna be a little bit of a kind of a tough wrangle to get in there. But if you hit something over on the fat side of the fair on the right, the ball is so far above your feet that you're like, I got to aim a six iron right at this creek, and I gotta trust that this ball is gonna hook over. But I know that there's wind coming in off the left that I can't feel.

There's just a lot of that that goes on around there, and you kind of have to know pick and choose your situations. It's just I think the part like there's just been so many different winners. But to your point, it's the white narrowest golf course you're ever gonna play. Like you have like the fairways like number ten fairway from from like the widest point has got to be

ninety yards wide. But if you want to hit it down there to where you have like an eight or a seven are and inn, you have to hook this thing thirty five yards and it needs to carry two seventy five. Like there's a lot of demand it. I guess that goes around there. And the shot shaping, I

think is where I excel a lot in. But I will say this the first couple of year, the first year or so, I was there the end of the grain, like it's real, like it is like down like hitting off a downhill on nine like in its mode backup hill, Like it's very real. So I think like for a while, like my wedge player around Augusta was so bad because that would just be like the wedge would just stick

in the ground ball right up the face. And it finally had to be like okay, Texas kid, get rid of the four degrees and hinge it into the turf, like learn how to shallow it. But it's just there's so many little intricacies around that place.

about Augusta, it's actually more of the fringes. Like their fringes are so brilliantly built because everywhere where they're chipping, they're always making the chipping harder. So like on the left side of thirteen, the fringe falls this way, so like all of a sudden, the second like a ball lands up on the green, it's just immediately going downhill. And then behind fifteen it goes, it tilts back towards

the front of the water. So if you land something over the back of the green, you're chipping back, bumping it into the hill. But if it literally gets set of two bounces, it gets won. It's literally in the water. So like there's just a lot of like the Okay, I'm gonna hit this to twelve feet, take my look, and if I make it, I make it. But you know, then all of a sudden on Sunday, that's you know, things might change a little bit.

of us are feeling from in that moment. I'm like, I literally had done that on that exact doll.

always been very good with anything. A little bit softer has kind of been something I've worked on, especially with me having a new back, is just being a little bit shower and being better at just timing up like the shorter three quarter shots, so I you know, like back left pins, front right pins, like obviously as a variety, those are things you love, but I always loved kind of like working them in there. But whenever I kind of got really going. People would always think that I'd

be firing at Flags, and I'm still not. You know, so I think like I've definitely gotten to a point where I'm still shaping it both ways, but I'm still picking really conservative targets based off of what you probably think I'm doing.

who Who's going to play well? And I remember I was like, uh, I'm gonna go watch will z l Taurus play And that day that was one of the best rounds of golf I've seen in a long time that that course had gotten so Saturday Saturday, I feel like maybe Friday was it Friday, I don't know, one of those.

hard as they can, or a lead a receiver. So my point with that is that it's like when I'm on eighteen at Sawgrass, like most people are probably slinging like an iron up the right or a hybrid, and I'm aiming in the middle of the lake and I'm hammering that fade. Because my theory is if I'm going to fade something, I'm going to do it one hundred percent, Like I want to fully commit to that fade. Not like, oh,

I want to steer this draw over, you know. So that's where for me, I think my ball striking, like I've kind of had that mindset where I'm like, hey, it pins on the right, I'm going to aim, you know, five steps left of it, but I'm going to start a fade four steps left that and then if I overcut it, you know, I'm able to commit to hitting that cut, and I know that if I overcut, it's still gonna end up on the right side of the green. And if it's just the perfect amount of faith, then

you're like, man, he's firing at everything today. It's like, no, not really. I mean, so I do. I don't really get in the mindset of firing at flags, Like I don't just like drop everything and start going and stuff. I might get a little more aggressive off the tee, but yeah, I just it's just kind of like, give me the best chance to make up and down. That's like kind of the mindset that I have. And it's like firing at this flag from two hundred and not

gonna be it, you know. So, I mean I do think a lot of it is just picked, you know. I think there's one guy you said it best where it's like, how do you shoot sixty five on tour and it's you thirty All the par fives, you probably hit a wedge or too close and you make it thirty footer and it's like, that's Devin, and you did one thing that was probably special, and that's the third. And so I think that's kind of where I come from a little bit where it's like kind of the

death by a thousand paper cuts. And that's why I played so well in the Majors. Like there was I think it was it might have been that Saturday at Brookline, but like I was actively hitting chip shots away from flag sticks just because I was like, if I go to this flag, like I could hit this thing to thirty feet, but if I just kind of baild this thing out over here, I'm gonna have ten guaranteed. And I would take the ten guaranteed. And then that week

I just made the ten footer. So that's where some of that kind of mindset was kind of coming from, where it's like six is gonna kill you, five is not. But the weeks that I played well in the Majors, I ended up making all those part butts.

I'm intrigued. I've always loved Pebble. I've just played so bad every year at AT and T and I love playing it too, but I'm just like, every year I go there, I'm like, I literally grew up here, and I don't think I've had a better finish than like forty eight.

You know, most people would expect me to say, like, you know, put the putts to win the US Open or whatever. I'm like, no, like those you like, you've hit that put in your mind a million times, Like sometimes they go in. Sometimes they don't like that three would on ten that I had to hit like kind of half ass warmed up to be totally honest with you then turned into playing with him. I'm like kiddish, so I mean, you know, like and I played with him in the US Open. I think when I'm like

going about my business, it's different. But when it was just so impromptu, I think that's where I was like, wow, I am nervous, like and I know that he would die laugh and knowing that, but it's like, you know, it's he's he's him, and I'm playing back down. I guess though, with my hero, Like, why wouldn't I be nervous?

Old Course hotel. He and JT were on seventeen green and they must have had one hundred people with them, thirty dogs, kids were throwing frisbees and I was like, this is awesome, Like you just can't get this anywhere. It's like, literally, you have one of the great the greatest player of all time. You have a guy who's a two time major champion, and they're just playing golf with the Old Course at ten o'clock at night and there's a bunch of people just walking down the fairway.

You know, when I think of the other places, I just think Dallas because of the four seasons. That's why I say that, you know, Florida, it's perfect for most of the year. You know, I might get a little cold in the winter in the desert, but like I just think in terms of like what we have, you know, the premier courses that we have, you can plan on every single type of grass, you know, because we're right

on kind of that cusp. And more and more courses are going to hydraunics with bermudas or with bent so you know, now all of a sudden you've got bent grass screens that are running, you know, twelves in the summer as opposed to mush. So I think that's why, like for us, it's so good, you know, but you can't go wrong with I would say with Jupiter in terms of practicing, but playing here year round, like you're just gonna get better.

a good dude. Like that's the other part though. He's so approachable, he's so chill, like he's still playing with the same guys, Like he's still East Chipotle probably five days a week, Like he's just he's just a regular old dude. But he just wants to beat the crap out of you at golf. And that part of it, I think is where it's like he's been obsessed at being good and trying to be the best he can be. He's just he's always living in that spot. And I think having a guy like Randy be his mentor for

so long. I love Randy. I mean the stories that that guy. You just hang around him and you just gonna laugh, and you're gonna hear golf stories for days, you know. But I think, you know, Randy grew up with Justin Leonard, or Randy had Justin Leonard, you know as his disciple for a really long time. Actually, Randy Smith grew up with my mentor at Benry that Efforts to earlier, David Price. They were kids together growing up

in Odessa. So the fact that you know, Scotty and I, you know, grew up together with basically two best friends and our mentors is kind of makes it even more fun. But yeah, he's just like it has just been so freaking cool to watch. You know. I saw him the other day, you know, working at National and with Phil Kenyon and they were, you know, grinding on you know, some Sam Putt lab stuff and you know, just going to work world number one doing exactly what you you know,

doing world number one things. And I just say, you think it's so cool.

His short game, I think, is the epitome of like nothing flashy, but it just produces results. Like you know, just the if you go and you look at the amount of chippins and whatnot, you just kind of go damn, Like you know, like wow, well this wasn't like some super special, you know, crazy flop. It was just like, yeah, you just chipped in like a thirty five footer from off the green, like I just did it again, like

I just hoooped a bucker shot. Like but the I think that's where it's like, like even when he's playing at home, like we're playing money games with him, it's just it's it's still disgusting where it's like, yeah, he's gonna make seven eight birdies, like you're just gonna have to beat them.

He hit his first t ball in the wrong fairway, say blew it out right, hits a five one on the front right bunker about like eighty feet away, hits that to the fringe, makes the twenty five footer and then he birdies six out of his next seven and

she's twenty nine on the front. And then the part that me and another buddy we always die laughing at was on fourteen, I flew a ball in the hole and it like popped out one to a foot, blew up the lip, and Jordan lipped one out off of the blown up side the lip, and he's like kidding me, And I was just like, yeah, it's all my fault that, you know, you've made one bogie today. But like those little memories like that, like you stay with you forever.

Like I brought up to Jordan the other day, He's like, I don't remember that. I'm like, yeah, because you shot have so many sixty threes in your life, you forgot I get it. I get it. But but like, you know, the same thing with Scotty, Like Scotty would go on like always wore he always wore pants to junior events. It didn't matter if it was one hundred and ten, Like dude was wearing pants, carry his own bag, you know.

But through I mean there were a few times, like I remember when I was like eleven, twelve thirteen, where he was just thrown up numbers that were like like shooting sixty sixes was like an eleven year old from like sixty three hundred yards. It was just like what you know, So those are the guys that I grew up playing against. So yeah, when you ask if Chip and contests were fun of them, No they weren't, but I definitely they definitely made me better, which is a good thing.

the next three. But with Jordan, it's like nine iron on one hundred and fifty yard part three left of the car path, banks it into the slope, pops up on the green and goes in the hole and we had already hammered, and I'm like, great, we'll drop that hammer back. Thanks, you know, lovely, you know. So that's like it's fun though, it makes it makes hammer games all of a sudden when people ask me why I might be dropping. I'm like, I play with Jordan a

lot like that is why I'm probably dropping. I shouldn't. I know that we're gambling, but that's why.

the best product going forward. What that is we don't know. But if you have the best players, that's that's step one. And I think when people were kind of looking at the merger talks for the longest of time or acquisition talks or whatever you want to call them, over the last eighteen months, or just lack of talking. It's like, what are we what is the PGA tour actually trying to buy? You're not trying to buy their tour. You're

not trying to buy their media agreements. You're trying to get all of the players or however many players you want to say, back under one roof. So I think like when you look at it in terms of now where those of us that stayed, you know, and you have the player equity program, which is the massive piece of it. I think that's where like the player equity program is essentially acting as like another pension for the players, but we get to act as equity owners in the tour,

so you know, we're voting members. We have full say. This is something that you know, Tiger, a lot of the players fought for. How we got to this point, it would be a million different steps that honestly I couldn't even tell you half of them. But the brilliance sent us the players actually owning their own tour, and that's the first sport that that's kind of ever happened.

I think is now kind of takes all of a sudden if you were to kind of look at a lot of us that stayed and kind of made a lot of those like no, they're gone, that's it, And now all of a sudden where it's now a player run, player owned institution. I think any player shouldn't have an issue with it now in terms of where the tour is gonna go in twenty seven, I haven't even met Brian row Up. I mean they've asked me to, you know, catch up with them and talk, and I'm like, I'll

meet you in person down the road. I've been out for five months. I don't even know who's in office right now, Like I don't know who's there. You know, we'll catch up, like when that time's right. But but yeah, I just I think having all of us back under one roof is just a win. And the fact that the tour has made it a player equity run or player equity this player equity program has made it to a point where it's like, yeah, this is when these

guys come back. It benefits you, So why wouldn't you want them back?

decided to try and come back. I don't know how some of these guys would come back with their contracts that is, but like you want, you know, certainly, you know, I don't think this is about Scott Vincent, no offense to Scott Vincent, but it's about you know, the select couple guys that actually, you know, move the you know, you know that that a fan would recognize and a fan people.

if anybody's hiring, we're available. So I think that's where like with Brian, you know, like I've loved everything he's done from thirty thousand feet, you know, I'm I think it's been awesome, but it's like there's just so many

changes that are going to be in the works. And my first few years out on tour, like I was on the player Advisory Council going through those meetings and then all of a sudden realizing that the last two hours was kind of not a waste of time, but like it just got everything we just talked about just

got nixed within five minutes. It was just kind of like, all right, well maybe you just give you the summary on the back half, and like I'll just keep playing golf, and like I'm not into this institutional stuff, but you guys just have fun with that. But like I just I think at the now that we're at that point where we're able to have these conversations, I don't know how they feel about it. I don't know how if

they feel the punishment's right or wrong or whatever. That's kind of not up for me to decide, and I'm kind of glad it's not for me to decide. I just know that I want them playing under our umbrella. The punishments, the punishment. You know, if other guys have issues with it, I'm happy to hear it, but I I don't have an issue with it.

But so that's why, like when I come back, I'm I'm honestly just kind of looking at it as like, all right, what are you guys doing? You know, I'm happy to give my input where it is, but just so many things they're going to keep changing and I'm just I'm gonna go try to play my best golf and hopefully I get a spot next week.

with the setup a lot and to benefit us. And then you go to Rome and it's like, Okay, all of our guys hit in an absolute mile and wedging and shipping is not really like the forte of the team.

Obviously the best twelve Americans in the world. That's saying they're not the best is subjective, but they basically moved every single par four under four hundred yards or like under three eighty and then they just took all of the four hundred and sixty yard holes and pushed it all the way back to like five hundred, so there's no par fors between four hundred and five hundred. Like basically there was like one or two a day max

on the par fours. And it's like that ingenious setup, only like that's just like a point and a half or whatever you want to say. It is right there when it comes to like them just beating us with the camaraderie. I don't know. I've only been on a Walker Cup team. I've been to a President's Cup for the first day in twenty two. They invited me because they would have been on the team, but I got hurt. So I got to see like kind of the inner workings.

I guess of how it works in general. You know where you have like here's some stats, guys, Physiogan's over here is our team meeting room, Like just to see all the you know, man, the stuff that they have to do, just see how it works. The Ryder Cup.

I don't know I I mean the when you look at like the Walker Cup in general, it's been pretty fifty to fifty over the last like I think thirty ish sessions and then you extrapolate that and then all of a sudden we get absolutely destroyed in the Ryder Cups. So for me, I'm I'm at a little bit of a loss. I thought some of the pairings were maybe like not our best pairings in general. I know, none of this is stuff that you know, This isn't earth

breaking stuff. You know that I'm saying, but it's I just felt like there was a little bit too much, too much thought going into there, Like you know, if one guy says, you know, if there's one guy that says, you know, hey, I like, uh, there's a lot of mid irons here. I feel like my mid iron game is strong. It's kind of like do you just tell them no, Like you just tell one of the best players, but one of the best players in the world like yeah, but like stats are saying like not even close, this

is not you. And so I think a little bit of that. And I don't mean to like speak for the captains and the vice captains of like why they picked who they picked, But it's a little bit of like why did you pick who you picked? Like, why did you put these parents together? You know what I mean. I'm like, I don't know. I just I And this is me not being somebody who's ever played on a Ryder Cup, but just kind of looking at it and I'm like, I don't know, I even I don't know,

but I know that I was it. Next one's no, where's the next one that's in the stakes?

and that like, that's the thing. I think the difference between match play and stroke play is like the other part of this where it's a different format and like you can you know, go out and play incredible and still lose, you know, And I think that's like the tricky thing with with with this And yeah, I don't know I would agree with the setup. The setup was like a head scratcher.

I am. Like even when it comes down to the golf course where I'm just like, you're doing stuff that I've like I've paid people to help me with, Like and you're sixteen seventeen, you do it naturally. And the kid's golf kids golf game. He's one of the most naturally gifted kids I think I've ever seen. I know that that's ridiculous because I know you want a tour answer.

I'm just telling you this kid is he's another kid who's like he's such a good kid, and he's so good, like just it was it was just one of those rounds where like when I watched him play, I was like looking because we sure we actually share our guy does his in a ile stuff's also my agent and so I've got to spend a whole time with them. But every time I've been around this kid, I'm just like, wow, like you are like you you are, you are sixteen

seventeen and you're doing stuff that tour pros can't even do. So, yeah, that's a guy that I'm I'm very excited for. I'm always in that kid's corner, like I'm I'm that kid's biggest cheerleader, like I want I want him to be the next big thing because he's he's such a good kid and he's so good. But there's so many kids coming up in college now. They all got one eighty five ball speed and they all you know, they're all

hit it a mile and they're all pluck good. And I'm over there doing my speed drills and you know, hit my wedges and I'm not going to be your three forty guy off the tea anymore. I might be three twenty, but you know, I'll be getting airmailed about all the young kids coming out. That's just how it always is. But yeah, Miles, I'm telling you, Miles, this kid's, this kid's, this kid's gonna be special.

You know, this hat has holes in it, it's got sweat stains, But I like this hat. That's the only reason why I wear it. And I love guys like that because it's you know, so I think, I know it's it's crazy to I wouldn't even say it's crazy to say, but yeah, I just this kid, he's got no holes in his game. It's just a matter of time. Like I'm I'm one of those guys on him where I'm like, yeah, I'm I'm definitely gonna be proven right, and I want all you guys to just remember that.