I think I really learned my golf DNA. That's the simplest thing is probably
just knowing what makes me Dylan Wu play his best golf, not trying to
be somebody else, like if you had to make a great player, like
you're taking Rory Mcinroy's driving and you have Tiger's ball striking, but like just
really for me, just realizing, like what am I good at, and
like how I can play good golf. And that's kind of how I attacked
Every golf course might not fit my eye, but there's certain ways I can
attack it in a way that's going to make me play my best golf.
Say, everybody's hitting driver on the whole just because it's a little longer and
the cold curbs rights left. I like to cut the ball. I'm going
to hit three wood here and it's still going to go in the fairway.
Is basically like doing those small things that take more confidence to do versus just
doing what everybody else is doing. Hi, this is John Pope from Milwaukee,
Iowa. When I play at Lake Panorama National Golf Course. This is
Golf Smarter number nine hundred and twenty four Mega Tour Pro Dylan Wu on his
journey to reach the highest level of golf competition. This is Golf's sharing stories,
tips and insights from great golf minds to help you lower your score and
raise your golf IQ. There's your host, Fred Green. Welcome to the
Golf Smarter podcast. Dylan, Hello, Fred, thanks for having me.
Hey, thanks for having your people reach out to me. I'm always fascinated.
I generally don't talk to PGA tour players or professional golfers, mostly golf
instructors. I do love talking to their caddies. So we can talk about
that too, because you know, you guys have been burned by the media
and so you don't necessarily want to answer a lot of things. So that's
why I'm like, yeah, we don't need to bug you. Do you
want to bug you? But I've got you. So, so let's talk
about your journey to professional golf and what level you're at. So let's start
from the beginning there. Yeah. So I grew up in Metford, Oregon,
so a town twenty five miles with the border of California, about eighty
thousand people. So I'm the oldest of four. I have two brothers that
are sixteen months younger than me, twin brothers, and then I have a
younger sisters four and a half years younger than me. But I'm the oldest.
People ask me like, how did I get into the game. My
dad, when I was born, just started learning the game. So I
actually have pictures of myself on the putting green when I was honestly probably one
or two with him, just I don't remember it, but one or two
on the putting green. The only memory, like the earliest memory I have
is maybe I was like four or five carrying a bag of snoopy clubs to
the range with my dad. But yeah, I know, all four of
us play golf with my dad. My mom doesn't play golf. We tried
teaching here in golf. But now the cool thing is our all our family
plays golf. I played golf at Northwestern, My twin brothers played golf at
Valparaiso and Air Force, and then my younger sister just graduated this past spring
from Lipscomb University. So all of us played Division one golf. Wow,
really cool. Oh your dad must be beaming. Yeah, no, they're
I like to say the ice at the tone with the being the first one,
so but no, no, yeah, but no rebellion. Come on,
you got three younger siblings and they're like, Dad, when I do
that, he's doing it exactly. So no, it's it was. It
was very good, really nice. Like when we get back home for the
holidays or just to spend time together, we get to play golf together.
So no, it's really really fun to play golf with my dad and and
play golf of my brothers. One of my brothers, yeah, twin brothers,
Jeremy caddies for me. Caddies for me now, been doing it for
two and a half years. But yeah, we grew up in southern Oregon,
played ice hockey and golf actually for uh pretty early, so probably I'd
say we started playing golf seriously at like the age of five and ice hockey
at the same time. So my brothers and I played played ice hockey really
competitively. I wouldn't say as high as golf, but pretty close. Like
I think I love golf more just deep down, but I love playing ice
hockey in the wintertime. It was a great escape from golf. In Oregon.
You can play kind of all year round, but it gets kind of
cold in the winter and it might snow, so hockey was a great escape
from golf. And you can use your anger in a good way in hockey.
With this golf, it backfires quickly when you get mad. But it
was a great combination. And then yeah, I just started playing junior golf,
and just I loved golf growing up. I mean, I just wanted
to be at the club every day. My brothers and I would literally just
my parents are dentist. They would just drop us off and just like leave
us there. All day would be for us. It'd be awesome about probably
running chaos around all the members and stuff like that. But just a small
club in southern Oregon where you grew up at a Rogue Valley country Club in
Medford, and it's yeah, it's home, and that's where I grew up,
and that's kind of where everything started. And just slowly started getting better
and just older and older. I started playing Oregon junior golf, getting really
good, and I was the best best player in the state for my aide.
Then I started graduating into playing in some bigger tournaments across the country on
the West coast in California. Then I started getting better at that, and
then just then high school came and this is when I got serious. I'm
like, Okay, I think I'm good enough to play not only college golf,
but I would love to have the dream of playing professional golf. But
let's stick, let's let's try to get a college offer first. But yeah,
my in high school just kept on getting better, played a lot of
AJJA tournaments. I was fortunate enough my parents were able to My parents had
both done this, like I said, support all four of us and give
us opportunities. And I remember flying across the country and playing a lot of
tournaments on my own. Honestly, just traveling on my own, sting with
host family. So I was pretty independent at a pretty young age. So
how young I remember the first time flying across the country. The first time
was actually when I was ten or eleven with to see my grandma and who
lives in Tampa, and I went to the for like three weeks. I
went to like the IMG Academy in Bradenton when I was like ten, but
then more consistently when I was like fourteen or fifteen, thirteen or fourteen,
just flying, staying at host families, playing in national AJJ tournaments and then
just getting better. And yeah, I just became a better golfer, got
instruction for my dad growing up, and head pro at the course I grew
up at. And I was kind of a golfer that was hit the ball
straight, not necessarily a far, but hit the ball straight, hit a
lot of greens, and just played really smart, simple golf, and that's
kind of what I do nowadays. But it was Yeah, I just kept
on getting better, and then I decided I was pretty good. Got to
maybe top ten in my class at one point, so I knew I was
good enough to play at college golf. And I already had kind of dead
set on going to a handful of schools because I really wanted to go to
a good academic school and a good golf school at the same time, just
because I mean, everybody wants to be a professional athlete, but really really
hard. So let's have a backup plan. So smart visits. Uh.
I thought it was gonna be in the West coast, being from Oregon,
that i'd be on the west coast, probably California, but took visits to
Washington, Stanford, cal Pepperdine talked to us C U, C l A.
Then I was moving a little bit out east. I looked at Michigan,
talked to Northwestern, and then a little bit of Duke in North Carolina,
and then took a visit to Northwestern the middle of January. Oh that'll
that'll sell it. Yeah, never been to never been, I mean Oregon
outside of Chicago, right, yeah, exactly, it's based just north of
Chicago. Never been. Doesn't snow that much in Oregon. But it was
cold. It was cold. So yeah, it's good blowing and yet not
conducive to golf or pleasure. No, no, I don't miss the Chicago
winners. I'll say that. But uh had my best visit there at Northwestern
the middle of January. Best visit. My coach was the biggest reason I
went to Northwestern, Pat Goss. He was He's been there for almost thirty
years. He's still my coach now on all of my game. So the
one thing that really separated my visit there at Northwestern is that I told myself
I could go to all these good schools that I listed before, like get
a great degree, I could do something successful, But if I really want
to become a professional golfer and get to the next level, I want to
be at a place where I can develop as a player, and literally on
my visit, Pat told me he'd base his success as a coach on how
I developed, and that kind of spoke to me because not a lot of
coaches, not a lot of college coaches have experience in professional golf. Most
most of time, college coaches are kind of like your parents away from home
and like your team managers. They kind of just organize everything, not necessarily
high instructors that have coach professional golfers or Preja Tour players like Luke Dhl went
to Northwestern. Pat basically ever since Luke went to Northwestern took Luke to number
one in the world. I'm like, if this guy can take him to
number one in the world, he could probably do something with me. So
yeah, So honestly, my four years at Northwestern were great. I mean,
Pat, there's the instrumental to my success. But yeah, I just
kind of I've always in my career just kind of got slowly, slowly better.
So, yeah, I played four years in Northwestern. Freshman sophomore was
good, but junior year is kind of the biggest year there. That's when
I was a second team All American, finished rank like twelve in the country.
That's when I I'm a big believer in like having your results speak for
them. You need to have your results validate like your your goals and your
dreams. So like that's when I realized, like, hey, I'm gonna
actually try playing professional golf. But I also wanted to work hard in school
and do well in school, just to make sure that I had something to
fall back on. So I was economics major at Northwestern, did well in
school. I always thought if I did well in school, it was easier
for me to focus on the golf. I did two internships in college and
just try to kind of get a full business agree and make sure I established
a lot of connections and just had a backup plan in case golf didn't work
out. And luckily it's it's been going it's been going well. So luckily
i'd rather be playing golf for a living. But yeah, but yeah,
my junior year is a big year. And then yeah it turned What was
it about the junior year that that kind of helped you decides like, yeah,
this is gonna work, I'm going to do Yeah. I just think
I just slowly got better. But I think I really learned my golf DNA.
I thought it was this. The simplest thing is probably just knowing what
makes me a good golfer, like what makes Dylan MoU play his best golf,
Like not trying to be somebody else, not I mean everybody like looks
like if you had to make a great player, like you're taking like Rory
mcroy's driving and you know, Tiger's ball striking, but like just really for
me, just realizing like what am I good at, and like how I
can play good golf. And that's kind of how I attacked every golf course.
And there might not be golf courses that are super I mean, it
might not fit my eye, but there's certain ways that can attack it in
a way that's going to make me play my best golf. It's like the
small stuff, like say, everybody's hitting driver on this whole just because it's
because it's a little longer and the whole curves right to left, and I'm
like, well, I like to cut the ball. I'm gonna hit three
wood here and it's probably it's still gonna go in the fairway. So it
basically like doing those small things that take more confidence to do, like you're
more confident in your ability and like what you're thinking and your decision making versus
just doing what everybody else is doing. Do you know what we call that?
Right? Oh yeah, golf smorter. Yeah yeah, there's a reason
for that. Yeah. So that's that's basically kind of a nutshell. And
then I just just kept on getting better and getting more comfortable. I don't
say to think, I just my game was just getting better, and I
was putting myself in good positions, Like I won only one time my junior
year, but the biggest, the biggest status. I think we played twelve
times that year, thirteen times. I had two finishes outside the top ten
and there are twelve both times and they're in our two strongest events. So
like, just the amount of consistency that I had that year was was a
big indicator for me, Like I was I've always been a big believer in
like consistency, Like, of course golf is like play well when you're hot,
Like consistent doesn't really do well. Like you could finish thirty every week
and it's not the same. You could finish fourth one time and miss the
next seven cuts and it's way better. But yeah, that's that's kind of
I feel like I just overall just became a I kind of really knew what
kind of golfer I wanted to be and what I was, And honestly,
with golf is like everybody wants to swing in a certain way and want to
get better, but like, honestly, the same the same things that make
you good now are probably the same things that made you good when when you're
a junior golfers, you're just trying to slowly get a little better, a
little better every single every single day, every single year. And that was
basically my goal. So let me do this. Let's take a break right
here, and then when we come back, we'll advance from graduating college and
going pro. Yep, all right, and we'll do that right after.
This sounds good. So as a junior, thing started to click. Junior
at Northwestern, things started to click for you. And then you've got you
know, it's not like football or basketball where you're like, Okay, I'm
going pro right now, and you were really focused on getting your degree and
having that backup plan in order. So what happened your senior year and then
how did you make it make the decision to go pro? Yeah, senior
year started off really well, pretty well in the fall at one event.
Senior Spring though, wasn't as as well as I planned. I think sometimes
with senior Spring sometimes you're looking already towards professional golf senior itis. Man,
You're you're putting pressure in yourself to perform, and honestly just wasn't performing as
well. So but I still kind of performed what I needed to. So
before this, like when I was graduating, I was gonna there was no
pgator University like there is now. So like now with all the changes of
the PGA Tour, if you're a really good junior and senior, once you
graduate, you get status on the PGA Tour Latino America or PGA tor Canada
or even if you or if you're in the top five, you get into
corn Ferry status. So they didn't have this until the last like two three
years. So when I was in college, if you wanted to turn pro
afterwards, you either needed to be really really good to get like the top
five guys in college to get like exemptions in the PGA Tour events or exemptions
in the Corn for events. Even I would say, like if I finished
my senior year, I probably have been ranked maybe maybe anywhere between like twelve
to fifteen ish if I was to include my junior and senior year of the
guys they graduated, maybe maybe a little higher than that, but I think
roughly around twelve to fifteen, but not good enough to get exemptions. So
I did Q school for PJA tor Canada when I was still in college my
senior year. So I played the Big Ten Championship in Baltimore my senior year.
I finished third, and then I flew all the way to Vancouver Island,
British Columbia the next day to do Q school for Canada. And then
you needed to finish in the top twelve and ties to get guaranteed starts,
and I finished tenth, so I got guarant t start. So after I
played the National Championship, I was going to go straight to Canada and play
in my first four event. I mean, play at my first professional event.
The funny thing is that Northwestern's on the quarter system. So I played
the National Championship and go play my first pro event at the end of May,
and I don't graduate till the third week of June, so I actually
play three two events in Canada. No, three events in Canada. Then
I skipped an event to go to my graduation in June. Wow, Well
I have a similar Just crazily, I have a similar story. Is that
I always wanted to be a disc jockey when I was in college, and
on graduation day of college, I was on the air as a DJ in
San Francisco and I was going to school in San Francisco. So it was
like, you did it. Yeah, I'm curious when when you talked about
how you just didn't perform as well when you when you got to your senior
year, does that mean you weren't scoring as well or you weren't placing as
well. How does that play out? Well, a little bit both.
I mean, of course it's definitely more performance result, but I think I
just wasn't finishing as well, not as competition. Yeah, and competition for
sure. Like I honestly think I just part of my part of my game.
My ball striking kind of went a little down. I don't think I
was straight and just kind of missing it. And then I think, of
course, mentally, you just get frustrated because you just came off such a
good year and you you have high expectations, so if you're not meeting those
expectations you want to be. You're pretty hard on yourself, and I'd say
I'm pretty hard on myself. So I think it was just I won't say
it's a wake up call, but I think it was just me just having
to go through that. Just a tough time. Everybody goes through it,
but you just gotta you just kind of grind through it. But like even
through that senior spring when I wasn't playing as well, the Big Ten Championship,
finished third, and then to get through Q School and get guaranteed starts
right like during that stretch, even though when I wasn't playing, it's just
like just at the end of the day, you just got to get it
done somehow, Like it doesn't have to look pretty. We just got to
get it done. So like a looking back, like if I didn't finish
in the top ten that week at Q School, I probably I'd have to
wait till till Cornferry qu School and wait a couple times. I don't know
what would happen, because honestly, that first summer when I played those twelve
events on the McKinney Tour, the PG Tour Canada, I really learned how
to be a professional golf for that those twelve those twelve tournaments. Like coming
from college golf, your coach, your coach tells you to basically show up,
do this, like go to workouts, do all in school. Here's
practice, come be here, like flights were taken care of, like a
hotel, Like you just getting told what to do, right, they're setting
up practice and everything like that. But like professional golf, it's all on
your own. So you're learning how to travel, pay for your own travel.
You're learning how to like take accountability and like plan your practice and like
how you're going to prep at a tournament without coaches telling you what to do.
So you're just on your own. So you really learned that. So
there really is a huge difference, a huge jump. I mean, I
know of other college sports there's a huge jump going into the pros. But
but you even fit missed for yourself, a huge change, and it was
mostly because it was all on you. Now all on you until you get
to like the PGA Tour. Now, like I mean people have like maybe
you're you have a coach, swing coach, but you don't have necessarily a
team around you, like the best players now like now I have like a
sports psychologist, a trainer, my coach, like everything everything. But like
at the time, you're just like, all right, I need to let's
go try to make some money and try to try to make a living a
little bit. Yeah. Now, so I remember like the first time a
second I remember missing the cat my first event as a pro. But the
second event I finished t fourth in Canada, I made like eighty eight hundred
Canadian I remember like after the currency exchange and the tax taking out my got
the deposit it was like five like fifty two hundred or something like that,
and I was like, wow, I'm I have so much money right now,
coming from nothing. But I'm like, now I think about it now,
I'm like, damn, I was, but that's just I'm curious.
Did you call your your dad? It's like, okay, I've won money
now, yeah. I mean, honestly, his response was like, really
five thousand dollars yea dollars developed for five thousand. It's like work when you
get paid in Canadian because it's seventy five percent. So no, I just
really learned how to be a professional up there. So like, honestly,
you can't really look at making that much money. If you play on the
PGA toward Canada, you're just trying to help play well to get to the
next level. So I played fine up there. I don't know, there's
like the top sixty guys keep their keep their status on there. I finished
like fortieth. But if you play really well, you get to skip stages
of Q School. But I didn't play well enough to skip some stages,
so I to start always skipped one stage, so I had to start at
first stage of Q School in September of twenty eighteen. So from June to
May to September, I was playing in Canada, played decent, but really
learning how to be a professional golfer and learn what it's like. And that
was instrumental for sure, just to like at least have that under my belt,
because if I didn't happen, I'm basically like I may basically be graduating
and then maybe playing some mini tour events we're just which is basically organized gambling,
and then going to Q School. Having a tournament experience, professional tournament
experience was great, and then I went to Q School, made it all
the way to the final stage of Q School, which is Q School is
probably the worst thing in golf, like I wouldn't. I hope in my
career I'd never have to do Q school again because it's literally it's literally the
worst thing in golf. Like if people why, it's just because it's just
like making a break. Like with golf, it's already like all on your
own. But like if Q school, so there's like there's like four different
stages you have pre qualifying, which is like prequallfying doesn't really matter because if
you're at all a good golfer or a decent golfer, usually you are exempt
to skip that. It's usually just weaving out the people who are club pros
that think they're good enough to play professional golf. You know, like somebody
goes up to you, like, dude, you shot like seventy at your
home course today, Like you should try to play professional golf. It's like,
yeah, anybody can shoot seventy at their home course. You're playing the
same course every single day, the same teas. You know, these greens
are ready and you're super comfortable. Versus if you go play in a tournament,
Like that's why women you see a scratch golfer go play, say in
any tournament they're gonna be way worse. It's just like tournament conditioned. Tournament
play is just so much different than just playing at the club with your buddies.
It's just way different. I mean it's not as fun, but just
making a putt, like honestly, like making a four or five footer that
means something for money and like mean something. It's way harder than you raking
it in your money game on Saturday now with the boys. So yeah,
Q school is just tough because if you have to advance to the final stage
to get status, and if you don't get to this final stage, you
basically have to wait another year, so year of your life, a year
of your life waiting to I mean you can if you don't make it,
you can play mini tour events, stay opens and like make ends meet and
stuff like that, but you're not really furthering your golf career unless you get
through to the final stage at Q school. Because if you let me ask
you a question, if you didn't make it through that and you had to
wait the year, are you the kind of guy that would like, Okay,
I'm just gonna work harder and stronger and do everything possible over the next
year to get me there or are you the kind of person that would go
Okay, So it's not the cards. I'm going to go Luckily I have
my degree. I'm gonna move on, No, and just play golf for
fun. No, for sure, there's you have to be realistic. So
I honestly like, as soon as I graduated, I want you have to
kind of give yourself enough time. So I kind of told myself. I
had a serious girlfriend at the time too, that was older than me,
that was working stable job and everything. I told her, I'm like myself
now, yeah, now my wife more, congratulations you made it to the
pros. Yeah, but uh, I kind of told her, I'm like,
I'll give me four Like I'm gonna give myself four years. Like I'm
always realistic. You got to have like your results have to validate, like
your your decisions and your goals. That's always been like I don't know why
I think that, but that's always been a part of me. So like
I was like, if I can't get at least better, say where I
might see myself get better and move forward in my professional golf career after four
years, I can't do it, then I'm like Okay, I gave it
a try, and I'll go do something else. I'm not going to be
thirty five years old playing mini tour events and just trying. And they have
kids and family and like putting that stress in my family. Like I love
golf, but like I don't love golf that enough to to do that,
do that to my family and like my my my personal life. It's just
that would suck it. Just you make thirty five sound like it's really far
away. How old are you? I'm twenty seven, okay, yeah,
all right, and you've got the career going and yeah, so that's that's
I was just trying to be realistic. I think, just sure, you
just got to be realistic. So that's the one thing I was. But
luckily I made it to final stage Q School that year, I got corn
Ferry status and then I basically, yeah, I played a couple of years
in the corn Ferry. Basically just my entire career has just been slowly going
up. I honestly would have been on the I've been been on the PGA
Tour in twenty twenty the end of twenty twenty, so the fall twenty twenty,
I would have technically been on the PGA Tour, but COVID happened in
life, so instead of everybody graduating to the PGA Tour that year, nobody
graduated. So there's two seasons. So instead of that, you know,
full season the corn Ferry, you have like twenty five events, and the
top twenty five advanced to the PGA Tour. I think I was eleventh or
tenth on the points list after one season. But then when you have two
seasons, you have like forty five events, and it's like way more points.
You have to play well for such a longer period, so much harder.
So I'm like literally my yeah. So twenty twenty one, starting up
like I was, I was kind of struggling with my game. I wasn't
playing really well, missing a handful of cuts, like it was kind of
a struggle. I dropped outside the top twenty five actually, and then I
end up winning a corn Fery event like the fourth the third or fourth last
corn fer event before the playoffs before your card actually. So then so that
that same year I was struggling, I do US Open qualifying sectionals and I
qualify for the US Open at Tory Pines. So that was kind of a
turning point too. That was like in May when I was kind of struggling,
went to do us O win sectionals. But the problem is there's a
the US Open is the same there's a there's a Corn Ferry event going on
at the same time as the US Open. So oh, literally on the
edge of the twenty five number, and there's probably eight events left in the
season, and I decided to play in the US Open instead of playing that
corner for event that week. All right, let's we'll pick up there.
It's a good spot to stop and take a break and then we'll come back
for the US Open. Dylan Wu after this, Okay, So Corn Ferry
Tour, US Open. It's an easy decision, or is it? Yeah?
I mean, looking at now, I mean it's probably the smart decision
is probably playing in the corn for event to try to get a PJA Tour
card versus playing out. But but it's my first YE Open. I want
to go play. So it's at Tory Pines. I decided to play,
And that was a really big, kind of a pivotal moment in my career.
Honestly, the one thing that was really weird is my it was not
my first PGA Tour event I Monday qualified for once before to the Shriner's Open
in Vegas. So it was my first US Open, second tour event.
But the one thing second event, the one thing that was cool was like,
I'm playing practure rounds with a couple of buddies that I played college golf
with. I'm playing practicing with Colin Marikawa. I mean, unreal player,
where we were buddies in college. Were still buddies on tour? You were?
He was in California. We were a year apart, but a lot
of my buddies went to I went to cal is probably my backup choice there.
They're my second choice. Wo yeah, over there have a lot of
friends that went to Berkeley. So playing practure on with Victor Howland, Colin
and I'm playing with these guys, I'm like, I want to say I'm
sar starstruck, but I'm just like that week at the US Open, I'm
I'm working out next to Rory. The only person that I was just actually
was starstruck that week was Rory. I'm like, this guy's kind of sick.
This guy, well, I was seeking all that week, like in
the pressure rounds and even the tournament days like hitting, hitting in between DJ
Phil Bryson. And the one thing that was really weird that week is like
the pressure. Like even if I played tea up sometimes on the first t
shot with them playing with buddies, like I feel like a little uncomfortable,
But that week, the whole week, really I was. I never felt
that much pressure. I have no clue why. I still don't understand what
happened my first year is US Open, but like I just really was so
comfortable there. It was like super cool. It was super fun. I
was just like you played Tory Pines before. I played it before, but
it's been like seven years, like not not even the US Open, So
like, yeah, I just I just played I played solid. I played
well. I finished thirty first in my first US Open. I think I
made like eighty thousand dollars that week. But it was just a really cool
experience to play in my first major and just for some reason had like a
lot of family and friends, like a lot of my family is on the
West Coast. And then and doubt never creep crept in. I mean it
probably did. It's like maybe on Sunday and Saturday, but like near the
cut line stuff like that. Like I was the first tea shot. I
was just like, let's go, let's go play, and I was like,
this is so weird. I'm like, I was just comfortable. And
it's like sometimes sometimes you feel comfortable and then and then you get to the
first tea You're like, why why am I Why is this? Why am
I nervous here? That makes no sense. I've it's just nerves sometimes are
just weird like that. But yeah, so and you made the cut by
how much? I think I made the cup by like three or four shots.
I think I was in the at the time. I was like probably,
so the second I was finished. I teed off late the first day
and then we didn't not already finished. So I played the second day like
twenty four holes. But the beginning of my finishing my first round the second
day and then starting off the second round, I think I saw myself.
I was t second after like twenty two holes, twenty three holes. Cool.
So that was really cool just to see my name on the leader board
and stuff like that. I mean it's really early in the tournament, but
it was just still cool to see that. And then, yeah, that
tournament gave me a lot of confidence. I'm like, yeah, I mean
I'm played in the US over and finished thirty first, I'm on like corn
Ferry tour, like you know, some people like I was on top of
the leader board one day, you know, on Thursday, Thursday, my
career and it's like it's made a career for me. Yeah, right,
so that's incredible. No, it was great. And then the one thing
was that gave me a lot of confidence. And actually I decided to move
make a change with my caddy right after the US Open. We were kind
of struggling before that, but we qualified for US Open and I'm like,
Okay, we'll work through the US Open. And then I wanted to there's
a week off. There's a week after the US Open on the corn Forery.
Then a week off, and I was like, I'm gonna have my
brother Jeremy, who was at the time working for Ey and Accounting and tax
and accounting, I mean, loving his life, right, but golfer.
He was in the he was gonna caddy for me in Maine in the corn
Free event the week after the US Open. So I'm literally playing a tory
in San Diego and the next week I'm going to Maine literally cross the country.
Ye. So Jeremy's caddying for me for the first time. I told
him, I'm like I kind of wanted I felt like sometimes with a caddies
sometimes for me personally, I kind of was relying on him too much.
So I really wanted just to like have somebody carry my bag and like have
my brother just keep it chill, like I mean, get yards and stuff
and do a little bit of stuff, but like just let me do my
own thing, like kind of gain that confidence as a golfer and my decision
making and everything like that. So he caddies for me in Maine. We
just well, I mean we've I remember we made the call on the number
or had the pot on the last hole. I think I hit it out
of bounds on like the second to last hole or third the last hole on
par five, and I ended up making a bogie. But then then the
last I'll have to make par And Jeremy tells me this story. I have
like a four footer, maybe four and a half footter or four footer.
I think I had a two putt from like twenty feet that I had a
super severe downhill putt, and I had like a four footer to make the
cut, and I make it. Jeremy's thinking, like, now where we've
come now, He's like, dude, if you missed that putt, I
don't know if I'm catting for you now or like I don't know if you're
I mean, I'm probably still maybe making it to the PGA Tour, but
he's probably not cadding for me because this was like his trial run. So
we make the cut. We make the cut on the number after Friday,
and then I shoot I think seven or seven or eight under on Saturday with
him, and then the finishing I didn't play us well Sunday but finished fifteenth.
So fifteenth in this first event is a caddy. I'm like, all
right, So I'm like, let's roll. I'm like, I'll have you.
Let's let's caddy for a little bit. So like so I now,
no, I got it. I gotta pick into this one a little bit.
I'm just fascinated about the sibling thing. Are the two of you really
competitive when you play against each other? Yeah, well I would say we're
really competitive, but not to sound mean as a big brother, but my
brother, they're good. Get your job as a big brother. My brothers
were good at golf, but they weren't as good as me at all.
Like like I always, I just I wanted to play golf. At a
early age, I knew I wanted to play college golf, like I just
love golf. They they loved hockey more than more than golf, honestly,
Like but they are still good golfers. And that's why they played Division one
golf because it was a little easier to play Division one golf golf. I
mean, hockey is almost as hard as golf. It's harder, honestly,
the lifestyle of trying to make its man hl because I won't go into that,
but it's it's really hard. But then Jeremy he was literally he played
golf in college at Valparaiso, but like he was decent. He was a
decent junior golfer, and like he won his state after I graduated. He
won the state championship. Shot sixty three in the first round or second round,
but he won the state championship. So like uh, and then people
are associating him with me. And I'm playing pretty well at Northwestern, like
a good college player, like ranked my freshman year, my ranked one one
fifty then top eighty my second year, so I'm a good college player,
like people know of me. And then then Valpoe is coming. He gets
recruited and goes to Valparaiso, which is like an hour and a half south
of Chicago, pretty close to me, and he just I think my brothers
have a little performance anxiety, but he basically just played terrible, like they're
probably expected him to be like in the lineup every single time, like probably
a top three player on the team, and this guy's this guy's not breaking
eighty. So like I remember, and then which is sometimes sometimes it just
happens. But the one thing, he got a full righte scholarship and got
a good degree and everything like that. I remember, like when I was
still in college, I went to watch him play. I think I just
turned pro. And this is because we're two years of part in school.
It was like his junior year and watching him play with individuals at Valparaiso and
they're playing with like, okay, some like small D one schools that like
as Northwestern, we're in the Big Ten. I'm playing with like a lot
of we play a pretty good schedule or play against like Alabama, Oklahoma State,
Texas whatever. But I'm playing with the like Valparaizo's playing in individuals with
like Drake Western Illinois, like some schools I've never heard of. And it's
not even like the starting lineup, the individuals, like the guys who are
like the seven eight guys on their team watching And then when we're on this
par five, Jeremy he's it's like kind of I won't say it's narrow part
five, but hits driver just pumps it like seventy yards out of bounce,
just club drop seven yards out of bounds. Then he reteased with a three
wood sixty yards out of bounds left, then he hits four arms then just
chunks it goes like one hundred and fifty yards off the tee. I remember
just watching this, I'm like, this is tough. But so then he
ends up, So of course he's not he's not going to play professional golf.
But he really enjoyed his four years at Valparaiso. Worked in accounting and
did majored in accounting and finance, and then he started working for ey Or
Young and their text division. So actually during COVID twenty twenty one, when
I was playing on the Cornferry. He was able to work from home a
little bit, so he came to a couple of events. Him and his
twin came to a couple events, and he was working, working in the
office or working on his laptop at tournaments, like when we stay together at
Airbnb. And the funny thing, there's a tournament in Nashville where my sister
went to school at Lipscomb, So like, my family's there, my sisters
in school still, Jeremy's working for he's supposed to be working and stuff like
that. But like it's like one of the tournament days and I just remember
waking up and like he's basically getting yelled at by his boss, and I'm
like, this is I'm not actually listening to. I'm like this doesn't sound
very good. So, like the funny thing is that literally not shortly after
that, he tells my brother, his twin brother, my sister and me
that he actually got fired from from the Gardston Young but doesn't tell my parents
this at all, doesn't tell my parents at all, so my parents don't
even know about it. And then like he had some time off or he
had a little bit of break, and then I was like asked that I
told my parents I want to ask him to caddy for me, and he's
They're like, they were like a little suspect at first because his brother brother
relationship and it's stuff like that. But yeah, so he ends up catting
for me Maine and then the find it was your It was your idea.
Did you guys discuss it was your idea? You approached him and when he
so when you approached him, he was already had been fired. You've already
been yeah, technically, so I was like, I need some work.
It's like, you better win because I was making decent money over there.
Yeah, because they they've caddied for me before. It's Jeremy actually caddied from
Okay School, h School when I first turned pro, and then him and
his brother have caddied for me in like one or two coin free events here
or there. But I was like, all right, you're in a caddy
for me, let's do it. So we finished fifteenth in Maine and then
we played a couple of good weeks, another couple of decent weeks, and
then we're in Springfield, Missouri, middle of July, hot as hell and
h So at the time, Jeremy is basically like basically just telling him to
carry the bag. And I'm playing really well in Springfield, Missouri. I
it's a really low course. Scores are really low there. But on Saturday,
I shoot nine hunder, tied for the lead going the last round,
so we're tied first twenty under parts. It's kind of an easy, a
pure easy golf course. It's always your fairway's good weather, soft greens,
pure greens. And then I remember, like on the fifteenth or sixteenth hole,
so I was playing really well. I was five hundred through nine.
In the final round, rain delay, thunder delay, worst thing that could
happen. We're in middle of Missouri, two hour thunder delay where I have
a five hour lead. So I'm just sitting there. But then fast forward
actually for a West coast kids, thunders and lightning and yeah, all that
stuff. Yeah, so I'm playing well, and then as soon as the
rain lay comes, I'm still playing well. But then some guy coming out
of the rain lay that makes like six birdies in a row. So I'm
like six hundred on the day at twenty six hundred, and I only have
like a two shot lead right now, and I'm like, holy shit.
So then I'm like on this whole fifteen, this par three, and I
remember like pacing the yardage and Germany's just like standing there doing nothing, and
I'm like, dude, you gotta do something. You got to help me
at least get the yardage, like the highest pressure situation, Like you gotta
help me do something. You can't like let me just just do everything.
So that's the story I love telling people, Like there's a Golf Digest article
that came out about a month ago that did a profile on me in a
little bit out Jeremy, I tell this story. I basically like, I
basically tell the story that Jeremy was useless. If you read it, it's
like, yeah, he was useless in the beginning because I didn't really ask
much of him. But now now he's run into a high level catting and
we have really good chemistry now. But that's the funny story. I remember
just I'm like, dude, you got to help me do something. We're
trying to win the tournament. Here. If I win this tournament, we
got a tour card like this is this is a big deal. And then
ended up winning the tournament. So his fourth weekend the job win a Cornfrey
event we get our PJ to lock our PGA Tour card and that's how he
started catting for me. And yeah, how does how does his twin brother
feel about the chance that he got that that the twin got that he didn't.
I mean, your other brother, is he a little bit resentful at
all? Or is he supportive? No, he's super supportive. So my
other brother, my other brother misses out a little bit because he played golf
at the Air Force Academy. So he played golf at the Air Force in
Colorado. I mean so now, so you have five years of active duty
after or so. He lives right now in Boston as an acquisitions officer for
the Air Force, so he works in their business business operations, and he's
like a middleman between defense contracts and the government. So he enjoys it now.
But he just being in the Air Force, you kind of miss out
a little bit. And like he luckily he gets to come to a handful
of tournaments. But honestly, to be honest, I told them both like
after Jeremy started catting for a while, so it's Jeremy and Josh. Josh
is the one that went to Air Force. I'm like I'd rather have Jeremy
Caddy for me than Josh. Josh is like the Air Force one. Josh
probably has the best swing in the family, like he stripes it, but
his I'd say his golf IQ is little not the best. Like when he
hits a bad shot, he's like, oh, my rhythm was off.
I'm like, no, your rhythm was not. It's not that's not why
this thing sliced thirty yards because your face was freaking wide open, Like you
need to understand why you hit bad shots. So when Josh was on,
like and his game was on, like he flushed it and played really well.
He was a good golfer at air Force, Like he was like the
number two guy, like not good enough play professional golf, but like he
was a good player, like a good player that traveled every week. And
uh yeah. But the problem with Josh. Had Josh caddy for one time
in Colorado because he's from he went to school in Colorado. So I was
like, you can Cauddy in the corn for in Colorado, And I was
like, he's just so optimistic where it's like it's like having a good outlook
on life, but it's not the right moment He's like when I hit I'm
hitting bad shots and not playing playing well, I'm getting mad. He's like,
dude, it's fine. We're playing golf like this is this is amazing,
this is like you're playing golf for a living. Well, I'm like,
I don't need this right now. We need to be a realistic Like
Jeremy will be a realistic with me. He's like, yeah, we're sucking
right now. We need we need to get this together, you know.
So that's why I was like, jo Josh, this is no, this
isn't this is not going to work out. So I mean, I definitely
picked the right brother to caddy for me. But he he misses out a
little bit, but he's able to watch a handful of tournament so he like
he came to the Players Championship this past year. He comes to like five
or six tournaments, so he misses out, but no, all of us,
it's for me. It's I love to have my family out there.
It's really cool. It's like my dad and my brother out there. Yeah,
that's really cool. The brother partnerships on towards me, my brother Harry
Higgs and his brother Al and then before it was DJ and DJ and his
brother Austin, So I mean, like the brother commos are actually pretty good,
so hopefully that's something for the future. But yeah, that's a fun
holp. You got started. My brother and I awesome. All right,
We're going to take one last break and then I want to talk to you
about your team now that you're on the pro circuit and how you're doing this,
So we'll do that after this. This week on Golf Smarter, Mulligan's
is an insightful conversation with Martin Chuck, high profile golf instructor and incredibly successful
creator of training aids who just loves to teach golf from rank beginners to the
highest levels of the professional game. In this episode, called the Ultimate Golf
Nerd, among other topics, Martin talks about how increasing your distance is more
than just increasing your swing speed. The average LPGAH where player swings at about
eighty eight miles an hour. There's a lot of you out there that can
swing at one hundred miles an hour or one hundred and two miles an hour,
or some of you that can swing at one hundred and ten miles an
hour, and that's really fast. But the average LPGA tour player. If
I put them on the tee with average club golfer, guy who swings at
the same speed LPGA tour player is going to hit it way farther than you.
Well wait, why If you're both swinging eighty eight miles an hour,
you have to have the right launch conditions to maximize on that strike and clump
golfer out there doesn't. The average LPGA tour player does because they've got the
club face path relationship that gives them optimized distant for that face and path,
club golfer has some kind of a white being glancing blow that takes away the
compression. Originally published in May of twenty twelve as Golf Smarter Episode number three
hundred and thirty three, it's episode two hundred and forty of Golf Smarter Mulligans
with Martin Chuck instructor and inventor. So if Golf Smarter is one of your
favorite podcasts, then don't miss the chance to have the experts give you free
lessons on how to improve your game twice each week with Golf Smarter and golf
Smarter Mulligans. They're both available for free from wherever you're listening right now.
How many PGA Tour events have you now played in? Yeah, so I
just finished my second season on tour. I think I've played sixty tour events
now. And how many cuts have you made? I think thirty, thirty
three or thirty four? Wow, so better than half. That's great.
And you're earning a living, thank goodness. Yep, yes, as is
your brother. Yeah, exactly. My parents are happy keeping the money in
the family. Right there you go, And I'm curious, what does that
now that you're doing this, you're all invested in and you're making money at
it. You have to build a team, you were saying before you're all
on your own, but now you have the ability to create a team for
yourself. And you mentioned sports psychologist. What what is your team consists of?
Yeah? Family, sure, yeah, I mean, of course I
have my wife first and outside the family like my brother. But you have
Caddie. Of course, my caddy who's family. But I have a trainer
that I work with all the time. I live in Scott Sale, Arizona.
I probably see him when I'm home basically every day. I think most
people have a trainer. I have a sports psychologist. I have my swing
coach, Pat swing coach, an instructor of Pat, my Northwestern coach.
So the one thing with him is like he does everything for me. So
we do swing, a little wedge game, putting, driving, literally everything
versus like a lot of players have a coach for each different thing, Like
somebody does work then they have a putting coach and everything like that. But
luckily Pat does everything for me, which is I think is perfect. And
then yeah, so I have kind of basically the Ya my trainer, my
sports psychologists to help work on my mental game, trainer helping me focus on
my fitness just because I'm traveling all year round golfs, Like a lot of
golf specific workouts are very different than normal workouts. You're just the so much
rotation and like mobility in golf, so you got to like you're training a
lot of different muscles and you're doing a lot of golf specific workouts. Like
if I had to tell people, like if I had to spend thirty minutes
before playing around the golf just for fun on the range with no warm up
and no warm up physically at all, or spend thirty minutes in the workout
trailer or working out beforehand, I'd rather it's fifty to fifty for me.
That's how like how important is like say foam rolling and just warming up and
doing my my stretches and activation stuff. Is I feel so good when I
come out of it and then go to go to the range and about to
worm up, like I'm ready to go, versus like, you know it's
cold outside, you just show up to the range for the first time,
you're you're stiff and stuff like that. So like that's about fifty fifty.
That's just it's like nowadays, I can't really imagine going to just to the
first tea without doing something at least warming up stretches, stretches wise, like
I travel with bands and stuff like that, just doing a lot of anything
to activate my glutes, my hips and all that stuff. So that stuff
just becomes second nature now. And it's wow. Having my I mean,
my team is so so important. Like the success you have means nothing without
the team you have. And I think that's the one thing that I've always
been a firm believer. And it's like, of course my trajectory of my
career has been going up and up, but it's the people that have been
with me for when I was nothing when I was like when I met at
zero dollars in my professional career, and or people that were supporting me when
I was when I was a kid back in organ like family and stuff like
that. But yeah, I mean there's so many things that go into golf,
into professional golf that's not just the golf. Sometimes the golf is part,
like the fitness nutrition, Like luckily with my trainer, Like that's it's
such a great thing to have a trainer and one of my other sponsors,
my Fitness Pal, like there with like one of the the best, like
diet and app to really figure out what's going into your body and making sure
you're properly and eating the right food to help you succeed or help me succeed
on the golf course. So like having that combination of like doing stuff to
take care of my body and my health, it's just so important because like
for golf, you can play for a long time, Like I hope to
play for twenty thirty years on the PGA Tour, but like I'm twenty seven,
Like wells out there's a couple PGA Tour players that are playing this week,
like Tiger, But there's so many injuries they have, Like if I
can go my entire career without any injuries, eat healthy. I mean I
love food. I mean trust me, I don't eat health like super clean.
I mean, if I was super clean, I'd probably be the fittest
person in the world. But I when I'm on the road and competing and
playing, like I try to take care of my body, eat clean,
eat well on the golf course, Like I try to tell people like amateurs,
like what's some things you should do, Like you should just you should
snack every like five or six holes. You should eat some food. I
mean, of course, everybody's gonna drink some alcohol or drink drink beer with
their with their friends when they're playing, but like honestly, fueling during a
round, it helps you sustain the energy. That's why, like some people,
like when I play with people, they get pretty tired, Like when
you get to the fourteenth hole, like we're just waiting until we're done.
It's like maybe you should have have some nuts or a snack. So like
there's so much different things that go into it. That's where like one of
my sponsors, my Fitness Pal, comes in. They like for me as
a yeah, I was going to ask you about that. What is my
my fitness Pal? Is that what it is? Yeah? Okay, so
tell me how that helps keep your nutrition and keeps you alert during a round.
I mean, is that what that's for? Yeah, I don't use
it, I mean can't. I don't use it during the round because I'd
use my phone. But like when I'm off the course training, like just
log I just it's basically it's an app that you can log and easily log
in all your foods. You can track your macros, track what you're putting
in your body, count your calories, and you can include all exers,
your exercises, anything fitness, basically anything fitness, food and health related all
in one app and makes it easy. You can go to the Grocery Score
and when I'm traveling and go to Grocertriores every week, go to Whole Foods
or Trader Joe's or a Safe Way, whatever I'm I scan, I'll you
can easily just scan the app and like it'll tell you if it's good or
not, and it can go easily and put it into the into the app.
So it's really easy for me. It's really when I'm traveling and playing
and walking all the time, Like it's easy to lose weight on the road,
so you just got to make sure you're eating a lot of protein.
So like some of the snacks I eat on the road, like in the
middle of around I travel, I eat nuts, like really healthy bars,
beef jerky, almond butter, love Justin's almond butter. Sometimes like it's hot
and sweaty and like you'll want to like touch something with your hands because you
want it to get sticky and orything. Basically it's like and then sometimes I
even eat like like cyclists have like those jellies, those those gels that like
just get them at to the end of the race, like all your times.
I remember like in Spring film Missouri, when I won like the last
five holes, my wife was watching and gave me and I'm like, all
right, we just it doesn't taste good at all, but like let's let's
give myself some energy. But that combined like using just making sure I know
what's going in my body, plus training my body with my trainer and taking
care of it when I'm playing and traveling. Basically, forty weeks of the
fifty two weeks in a year is just very important to not only success now
but also success long term and making sure I can do this is your Does
your trainer also act as a nutritionist for you? Kind of kind of a
little bit, But it's more me just doing the doing the research. There's
a lot of stuff. I can just look on my fitness Pal and just
there's a lot of research and nutrition and I can talk to somebody who worked
fess Pell easily. I probably my trainer. I would say it's an app.
It's a nap. Yeah, it's like the number one diet tracking app
in the country, and it's people joke with me. The logo kind of
looks like the Jordan logo. Like people it's it's like a ballerina, but
people think, oh, is that the Jordan logan? Far away I'm like,
no, not the joke man logo. But no, they're great.
So I think I think just any sport, I mean an if you're doing
any activity like health and nutrition just so important, like it just helps you.
Then then I know if I play bad, it's not because of anything
I'm doing fitness wise or health wise that's preventing me from performing my best.
And I think that's who's your sports psychologists. My sports psychologist is a guy
named fran Pirozzolo. He lives in Houston, Texas. He worked for the
New York Yankees when they won two pennants and then he works with the Texans.
Worked a little bit with the Astros, but he works with Bernhard Longer
on the Champion Store. But he's he's been a great I met him when
I was at Northwestern. Northwestern was with Pat was smart enough to hire a
sports psychologist to come meet the players and the help work because it's so important,
like the cliches of like people saying like stay in the moment, like
one shot at a time, focus on the process, like all athletes,
whether you're like Steph Curry, you're Tiger, you're any NFL. But like
you're like the zone is a real thing, like you just we talk about
that a lot on this show. Actually, I would love to get Frank
on the show. Yeah, so an introduction would be awesome. We have
to cut this off pretty soon. I know that you have to go,
So let me ask you one quick question. Let's just say you're teeing off
at eleven thirty. What is your schedule up to that point? Okay,
so if I'm eleven thirty, say it's a practice round. That's easy,
so I'm practice. Yeah, I'll probably okay, wake up whatever whatever a
time, but I'm going to get to the golf course probably like eight thirty.
I'll spend probably eat fifteen minutes breakfast, Like at breakfast I'm at turnam.
It's pretty healthy, like scrambled eggs, some protein, maybe some bacon,
veg veggies, and some fruit usually like an omelet. But it's really
simple and maybe like a really healthy smoothie. Luckily the tour we have usually
good food. I wouldn't run on the road. But then yeah, I
get there, it's done at eight thirty. I'll go in the trailer,
probably the workout trailer for thirty minutes, so like eight forty five and nine
to fifteen. Then if something is like I say, I've been playing a
lot of weeks in a row, so I want to stop by the PT
trailer and like make sure my body taking care of like anything like kinks in
my neck or if anything is bothering me. Maybe you spend fifteen twenty minutes
in there, and then getting to the start on the putting green, probably
like nine to forty five, So like there's almost like an hour to hour
and a half of me doing stuff before I actually get to the practice area,
doing a bunch of different stuff. I'm like, am I doing drills?
I'm doing putting drills, like speed drills. Like my number one advice,
there's a couple of advice. I play in pro ams every week with
amateurs. I play with a lot of buddies and members and normal people.
Like the biggest thing is like people don't definitely don't spend enough time putting and
spending time on lag putting. Like when you think about golf, like you
say, you there's seven you shoot even par right seventy two, Like half
your shots a lot of time you hit every fair way in every green,
and then you two put every single time half your shots is putting, like
you're gonna put more than every other shot. So the one advice I tell
to tell people too is like lag putting. But also when you're on the
range, and usually guys are playing guys and girls are playing the same men
and women are playing the same course their their home club every single week,
like once or twice a week. Right, It's like, if you're on
the range, how about you hit the hit the clubs you're actually gonna hit
in the golf course, like everydy loves hitting like a five iron or whatever
or whatever like that, but like you're gonna hit your driver the most of
the time, and you're gonna hit a lot of wedges. You're in a
chip and like just like basically like prepare like how you're gonna play on the
course. That's how that's how you're gonna shoot lower scores. I mean,
it sounds pretty simple, but it's like I mean I love hitting, like
I'll beat balls and hit like a six iron five iron just make myself feel
good. But I'm like, am I even gonna hit this on the golf
course. I'm not gonna hit them on the golf course? What am I
doing? Like, it's what shot? I'm not gonna use it? What's
the point versus like I'm gonna hit twelve thirteen drivers today, I'm gonna be
chipping and it's a bunker shot. So like just like play practice how you
play, and it just makes it simple so you don't need to spend that
much time. But yeah, there's a lot that goes into it. Like
I don't show up anymore even at home and I'm practicing and having a round
with buddies. Like it's rare, like if I tea time at eleven thirty
that I roll up at eleven twenty five doing nothing. If I do roll
up eleven twenty five, it's I'm probably working working out with my trainer and
I'm feeling pretty loose, and I'm like, yeah, so it's all right,
Well, listen, we do have to go. I'm sorry that we
have to cut this short, but it's your schedule. And I really really
appreciate you spending the time with us. I learned a ton and the whole
Golf Smarter community is going to be rooting for you now, so you got
more family on your side of the game. So thanks so much for being
here. No, thank you, I appreciate it. I don't know what
is it about golf that becomes an obsession. Is because the game is so
hard and can never be mastered. Is knowing that we can be better than
we were in our latest round the driving Force for Improvement. I think it
was Joe Hallett who recently said on the show that golf's a simple game that's
really hard to play regularly. In this segment. After the interview, I
report to you on how my game is going and the successes and failures I've
lived through over the previous week. Luckily, I live in a climate it
allows me to play twelve months a year. There's no question this privilege is
something I do not take for granted. At the end of the twenty twenty
two season, though, my index was down to just under six, and
I wasn't just playing the best golf of my life, but was playing with
the highest level of confidence I'd ever experienced. But as I closed twenty twenty
three, I feel like I played a lot less than the year before,
even though with just a few weeks ago, I've only played a couple of
rounds less than twenty twenty two, and my index is now back around a
ten. Am I whining. Yeah, I'm sorry, I shouldn't be,
but you know, when you have that much of a difference, it gets
in your head. Now, all this is despite the fact that my average
eighteen hole score is just one point one strokes higher than the previous year,
but my index went up five points. So why then am I so full
of doubt and frustration? I really think it's my putting that still has me
whining. Well, in a couple of weeks, we're gonna be visited once
again by Sam Hahn, CEO of Lab Golf. If you followed the PGA
Tour in twenty twenty three, you've heard great stories around players like Adam Scott
and Lucas Glover who transformed their games by using a lab Golf putter. It
was just reported that will Zla Taurus is now returning to the tour after rehab
from surgery and now also carries a lab Golf putter in his bag. Now,
the interview with Sam was conducted last week, but because we get an
exclusive from Sam about a new product that's about to hit the market, I'm
required to keep the show under wraps for a couple more weeks until that product
is available to everybody, So please stay tuned for that time. During this
holiday buying time of year, I'm going to focus on some products that I
believe can help make a difference. I want to welcome our newest golf Smarter
Ambassador, John Doveson of Wolke Iowa. I hope by pronouncing Welke Iowa,
well, I know I got Iowa right. I never heard of wowk anyway,
because all he did was record this week's show opening. John is receiving
a free link to Tony Manzoni's video of the Lost Fundamental. I invite you
to become a Golf Smarter Ambassador with the incentive of getting a choice of three
great gifts for your efforts of telling us where you're from and where you play.
Choices include Tony Manzoni's video, a glove and glove storage compartment from redroostergolf
dot com, or a box of Odin X one balls that sport the Golf
Smarter logo. Just write directly to me and I'll send you simple instructions on
how to record an episode opening that takes one minute of your time. Actually,
it'll probably take less than one minute of your time and you get a
gift. So check out today's show notes to find links for each gift that
you have to choose from, and to see and hear the most compelling short
reminders of our podcast interviews for both Golf Smarter and Golf Smarter Mulligans. Please
follow us on social at golf Smarter, on YouTube, TikTok, Facebook,
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videos and articles that are published five times each week. If you have any
questions, comment suggestions for upcoming episodes, or want to join our list of
golf Smarter Ambassadors who've received that free gift, write to golf Smarter Podcast at
gmail dot com or click on the Heyfred button when you visit golfsmarter dot com