Laurie Canter: Augusta Debut, Pro Golf Realities & A Fresh Perspective

Laurie Canter joins George Harper Jr. to reflect on his journey through the ranks of professional golf in the latest episode of Life on Tour, presented by Buffalo Trace. From grinding it out in the early years to making his long-awaited debut at The Masters, Laurie shares the key moments that shaped his career.

In this episode, he opens up about the challenges of chasing success on tour, the emotional highs and lows, and what it’s really like to navigate life as a professional golfer. He also offers fresh perspectives from his time away from the DP World Tour — and how those experiences have shaped his mindset today.

Chapters:
00:00 Behind the scenes
2:53 The impact of music in golf
4:53 Canter & Morgan’s relationship
7:45 Introduction to golf
9:53 Turning pro
12:36 Settling into Tour life
19:37 Pro golfers vs good golfers
21:52 Handling pressure
24:42: First DP World Tour win
29:24 Life on Euro Pro Tour
31:52 Canter’s future goals
33:33 Playing on LIV Golf Tour
39:13 Returning to DP World Tour
42:06 Relocating for Tour events

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He’s great. All time favorites. Is he? Yeah. Oh, speaking of all time favorites, Mr. Green, how are you? Good to see you. All right, man. Yeah, good, man. Yeah, he’s been here for two seconds and you’re ripping him out about his green top. I like it. I like it. What’s wrong with it? I taking a Mickey out of a nice pastel. Nice pastel color. It’s beautiful. Hey, can I offer you a lovely little um I’d love some little temple? Yes, please. Let’s start. Oh, mate, you’re a lucky boy. Fill it up to the top. Gently. Gently. Or can you erate it a little bit? Irate it a bit. Look at you. Let’s hit a fair bit of erration. Oh, go on then. I’ll have a bit more. Thank you, mate. Buffalo trace. Actually quite hard to blame. I like this stuff, mate. Cheers, ma. Cheers. Cheers. Yeah, absolutely. Cheers. Bottoms up. Bottoms up. You managed to slip onto Milfield. I was supposed to be playing right this minute. Oh, really? But I’m with you. Oh, you’ve won the lottery then, haven’t you? Really? You can go and play nine holes there, can’t you? Huh? You can go and play Well, you can do like a little quick loop of nine, though, cuz there’s two loops in it. Two loops. It’s been gone. They They pulled the plug, mate. I did it all for you, mate. All for Buffalo Trace. You owe me one buffalo. Are we starting or have we started? No, we’re just sort of We’re just chewing off just going. This is really cool and chill, man. [Music] There’s kind of green jackets everywhere. First day, I think we turned up in our rental car and I got told we would appreciate if that car didn’t return to the property. You weren’t winning. Between your ears, I’m thinking, what is this dude doing? They ain’t got a bit of cash in front of you, but the mooch. Yeah. I think it’s hard for me to say I knew what I was signing up for because I actually didn’t. No, not many did. [Music] Look, ladies and gents, we’d love to welcome into well, I guess the whiskey room, uh, Lori Caner. Um, mate, it’s been great to watch you over the past year and for a lot of us, your whole career. Firstly, how are you and welcome? Oh, thank you. Um, it’s nice to be invited on. watched watched a fair few of these. Oh, nice. Always enjoyed the conversations you guys have. So, um I’m good. Yeah, I’m uh sort of middle of the season, so kind of ticking along as it were. But um yeah, feel good. Yeah. When do you watch the podcasts or listen? Do you watch or listen? Is it in the car? Is it on the you know? No, the ones that have like captured me have been clipped up. Yeah. So I’ll see a clip and then I that’s a good conversation or that’s a good topic and then I’ll usually slither in and get on a podcast. Nice. So um do you listen to like any podcasts out on the course or on the range when you’re practicing or anything or is that just pure I’m in the zone? Um I do at home if I’m practicing my putting at home I have to have something on cuz I get bored quite quickly practicing putting find it quite difficult. Yeah. So, um yeah, I’ll I’ll try and have something on to just like if if it’s just quite a repetitive part. I think there’s elements of practice where you do have to really tune in. Um but I I think there’s like a really there’s a good place for music. I see a lot of the lot like John Ram always got his headphones in, hasn’t he? Oh, really? So like warm up when he’s warming up. So I think there’s a good place for it. There’s a couple of times in my life that I’ve I’ve played a song and it’s got me so pumped up. I’ve gone out there and felt like I was Rocky Balboa and just thought, “Yeah, no one’s going to knock me down. I’m just going to run through a brick wall and win this thing.” You know, they, you know, they write movies about certain moments and songs like that. I mean, happened to me and it just all folded in when I got on tour in America. You know, it was like, you know, I was playing, what was it? 8 Mile by, you know, Eminem. Lose yourself in the music the moment you want it. Don’t you ever let it go. You only get one shot. Do not miss your chance to blow. This opportunity comes once in a lifetime. Massive. Yeah. And I was like, and I just watched Tiger in a Skins game and then went out and then blitzed. It was like that. And I just I was playing it three times every morning on the way to the golf course. And literally just eyes pulsating with just like voodoo magic ready to just unfold on the world. It was like and you know, you just had to make it happen, you know. It was good. I love it. The um I can imagine music will make you feel like make you feel something that words couldn’t. That would be that would be something I’d be completely on board with. You have like parts of music from your childhood or that kind of stuff that would you know would bring you back to that moment. Yeah. That you know a description or a memory that was said to someone but wouldn’t do that. So I could I could I could be on board with that. Yeah. Outstanding. And I guess for those listening who might not know the background, um, and just in case the banter goes in all sorts of curly directions, uh, these two BS know each other for have known each other for a very long time back in the young golfing days. And Lori, uh, you know, I’m not going to say inspiration. Uh, but Johnny has attempted to inspire you at a younger age. Can you talk us through his ability for team talks? Don’t do it, Lori. I’d go for I would go as far as saying sparring because I know we take the mick but I mean like what John achieved for you know when we’re growing up was incredible right he he was a a lad from Somerset like foreigner country and he where he went and like got dual cards on both tours I don’t know if he’s ever he did it without a yardage book he used to play Chippy the eye and just guess the yardage I mean I think he said I’ll let him tell the story But I think the first time he ever used a yardage book was on the PGA tour. We’ve played by feel his whole life. And that was I mean and our sort of introduction through team representative golf was we got the opportunity to hear him kind of speak and um at a at a Somerset dinner and it was it was kind of aimed at the guys coming through trying to break it into the men’s team golf. Um I’ve got kind of two abiding memories of it that um John John walked in the room and the first thing he first person he greeted was the Somerset chairman who was Graeme Yates who actually went on to become English Golf Union president and John went to shake his hand and then sack tapped him. Um so so he’s like so I do he s tapped him just d you the old and he’s kind of sim I think the boys in the team uh yeah sort of immediately thought one of the lads and then um yeah just gave just gave a sort of fairly full-blooded idea of his his kind of psychology in golf um and it was it was great. It was really inspirational. I think when you’re growing up, if you’re trying to be a golfer, you get really small little windows and insights into people who play. So, you know, and we had that. So, this can be edited. So, you can say say a line cuz like you’ve told me the line. You’re let you’re let swear on this podcast. Well, it was directed mainly at Glouester who were like our main rivals and he, you know, he just said, “You just got to eat those.” Um was but this is quite a straight lace dinner in terms of we’re we’re all suited like that we’re wearing you have suit and tie we’re wearing the I love gloss but it’s like you know it was just like it was just a motivational speech it’s good but it’s it’s stuff like that that makes us I mean you’ve come through all of that you’ve come through you know turning pro when did you say to yourself right I’ve done all this and now I’m going to have a go at turning pro you know ticked every box I could. When was the time you thought like this is it? I’m I’m going to chance myself at this. I felt like I was always playing catchup cuz I started golf I guess relatively late. Yeah. And so I Cuz you’re into tennis as well, right? Yeah. I played really played tennis I was 14 and I’d played on the par three and stuff like but I like I I kind of really started golf at 14. I got to scratch pretty quick but I was never getting picked for Somerset teams. I was always felt like I was playing catchup. So then I got I finished school. My parents just gave me a year to to play golf. They said, “We’ll fund you to go and play amateur golf.” And was it a bit like what my mom and dad, they just said to you, “Right, you’re good at both. Which one do you prefer?” No, I wasn’t good enough athlete, I don’t think, to be a tennis player. Like I was a really good junior tennis player, right? There there are levels in life. And it was looking back on it, it wasn’t like um I could have like persevered and you know like done something in tennis, but I wasn’t going to play. Like I think I think I can kind of say that like I feel um so it was more just probably pragmatic part of it. Um, it takes up a like tennis is a big is a big commitment for younger kids as well. Like I was in a place where I was going to have to start giving up parts of my education to play more tennis like early starts before school, after school, right? It’s quite a lot for like 13, 14, 15 year old to take up. Whereas golf’s it definitely is a bit more of a sort of an evolution with players. Even the people who start really young, they might find time to practice but there’s just such a like breadth to the sport that they just tennis. Yeah. You can play. You can play. Exactly. Exactly. You can’t do it with tennis, can you? Exactly. Against. Yeah. You you can just go and find it and um there’s kind of no limit to what you can do within practice in golf. Whereas tennis, you are you’re limited by you need a program and then there’s, you know, it’s it’s not really possible to practice tennis for more than three or four hours a day, but it needs to be intense. So, it’s different quite quite a different sort of mindset. Uh pro. So, you made your decision, you turned pro, you’re behind the race, but then yeah, the year I sort of had to play off was was good. And then, yeah, I guess it just it was something that I was really passionate about, and I I was getting good amateur results, and I just had a chance to go and to go and play. I got some starts on the challenge door. Um, and there was a Walker Cup to kind of on the horizon, but for me it was I was just like desperate to go and just go and have a go, go and dip my toe in and see how I could um cuz the Walker Cup is the biggest amateur event or a goal to aspire to arguably. So, what was the part like was there you were just so convinced you wanted to go pro or was there No, I think cuz I started late, it just didn’t hold that mystique for me. True. like it just didn’t it wasn’t um and I look back now and I think go stay for five or six months and maybe have a run at playing I think I would have had a great chance of making that team but it was never on my radar cuz I never considered it um that important like but I think I think if you come to golf late and um yeah my goal was always this be great like I want to make a living want to go and play on tour um travel the world play these tournaments yeah very fair goal yeah and it seems to be going all right. Well, we dodged a few bullets, but yeah, I’m still standing. Yeah. So, when you’re in that, who was your gods of golf? Who was your gods of golf? The ones that you looked at and went, I want to be like that. I want to do it like that. Like the first major that really got my attention was um Gooseen Mickelson. Oh yeah, Goose Pipum at the US Open. Great swings. And it was like a brutal I remember watching it was like a brutal golf course and but his he was like it was unflapable goose, wasn’t he? And he was like really cool. He had a really cool swing, really powerful, but like couldn’t couldn’t get to him. Is that Shinkok? Shinikok. Yeah. And they were they were had to water the greens in the final pair. Three when they front left bunker with a pin back right. Yeah. Oh yeah, that’s Yeah, that’s right. Yeah, it is a one. Well, they were aiming for the bunker cuz you couldn’t hit it on the green. I see they had it was absolute carnage. That was They was I would say those two Tiger obviously. How can he not be? But um but yeah, Gooseen for some reason always I loved him. Um what a rhythm. Yeah, he was silky smooth. Mint, mate. Mint. It was such a Yeah, I mean you don’t really get the recollection like he’s like disappeared into the senior tour and no one’s really talking about him. Seniors I mean he had a couple of US Opens and he won some order of merits. It’s I think he was maybe in South Africa kind of in Ernie shadow a bit. Yeah, he was. Yeah, but as a player he was he was cool. Yeah. And you go pro. And I guess the hardest thing about becoming professional is settling into the tour and um we were talking about your your Q school record and how to get your DP World Tour card. Can you talk us through that experience? And for some of the pros these days, it’s easy, it’s quick, and they rise. The young kids seem to rise to start them really quick. But how hard was it for you to find your feet, secure your card after a long a fairly long time chipping away? I found it really hard. Like I’ve I found it because you’ve got this kind of weight of expectation which is all self-imposed. You turn pro and you know you think you’re a good player. Like you think you know you’re I was fifth in the world or whatever I was as an amateur like I’m going to go play and um and then you don’t you know you you don’t play. I was playing on the challenge store and and I think my first year, seven or eight starts. I I seem to remember I made almost all the cuts, doing fine, but didn’t have that week. Then all of a sudden, I’m kind of in this um well, you’re nowhere really because all you’ve gone from playing amateur golf where you it’s amateur golf, but you’re getting 30 events a year and there’s always next week to you don’t know where you’re going to play, right? Um you don’t really know how you’re going to afford it. you got all these kind of different things that that come um that come at once and um yeah so so I really really struggled the first um really the first two or three years I look back my golf wasn’t necessarily that bad but I wasn’t like mentally wasn’t right to to get me through it um so yeah was it was a struggle I think I was back and forth to Q school without getting through every year from 2011 to 2015 16 when I got my card falling at the first stage or second stage or final stage. I it was always slightly improving if that makes sense. Like I was always doing a little bit better. Yeah. But um in the big scheme of things, yeah, still still kind of drowning really. Um but yeah, managing to stay going really from the fact I I didn’t have any proper responsibility in life. I my I lived with my parents until I was 26. Luckily, they and they were very um I’m very fortunate. They never imposed any sort of pressure on me or or they they were happy to kind of help and support where they could. Um, so helps. Yeah, you’ve I mean it unless you are that Roy Maroy or L Gabber of this world like you need the support structure you have is like so so important um for moments like that you know especially. So um yeah I was just so so lucky to have that really to be honest. Yeah, brilliant mate. Cuz you what like four out of five years you got through final qualif uh Q school. Yeah. So from once once I sort of cracked it in 2015 I got through 15 16 17 um doing slightly better on the tour every time. Not well enough to keep my card and then 18 lost my card. Uh went to Q school did sorry didn’t get it. Got a challenge tour card. Did like didn’t get my card through the challenge tour but did okay. got to final stage, got my card. So that would have been the fourth yeah, fourth time in fifth in five years that I I got through the school. So So yeah, it was I guess in that respect, it looks like a good record. But and when So after all of this, like when was the moment where you finally felt settled? Was it after your first win or was it what was the moment when you’re like, “All right, I’m here. I’m where I need to be.” And you feel like you’re comfortable, where you fit in? Uh yeah, I mean when you look at it like that, turning pro in 2011 and then 2020 was really the first year I actually kept a card. So it’s nine years. I know I was on and off the tour. Um but we I mean COVID happened in 2020. So that meant for a player like a player like me, I had a Q score category and all of a sudden they’re saying we’re freezing the rankings. Everyone’s playing every event. So, so that m there there had to be a subconscious shift in me that I was like, okay, my I’ve actually got a job next year for the first time in a decade. So, it was there might there might have been an that might have really helped me like I would openly say it had to. And then there were a lot of opportunities to play um just by the nature of that year. There was kind of people a lot of the top ranked players were going and playing in America kind of understandably because it was difficult to travel in Europe, all that kind of stuff. So I was able to play a lot of great events and I think I just kind of got a bit of steam behind me finally and then um played played well the end of that year and then my kind of career in 2021 I think maybe just settled and I was had a good pretty good start to that year and a lot of the maybe hang-ups or pressure I felt around trying to keep cards or trying to um fulfill an expectation just subsided a little bit. Yeah, it’s just great to hear how long that journey can take because for a lot of people at home, you you know, you’ve popped up a few times in the last couple years winning. They’re like, “Oh, who’s this Lori Caner bloke?” But a lot of us here know like the graph that it takes. Oh, it’s such a hard road. It’s such a hard road. He knows it better than most. More than he can probably vouch for anyone that’s here this week where we are up in Scotland, but it’s just it’s unbelievable. It really is. And to stick it out, Lori is unbelievable. I mean you could have you there must have been a point where you thought I ain’t going to you know have I got it you know you know there must be little devil in the back of your head going h quit mate go and get another job you know go and do something else I reckon all golfers have that a little bit in terms of like you could jack you can jack it in but I don’t um I mean during that period broadcasters have it too you’re all right but yeah it’s I’d say it’s um it would be interesting to to kind of think I mean during the middle of that I did go and like enroll in a degree I was thinking about that there’s actively on my mind I I’ve like I have a law degree from the open university that I took during that period cuz basically I just had so much free time so I was like and I think in my head I was you know you’re trying to be productive you’re trying to do stuff um but I actually think that that really helped me you know like that took pressure off because there was maybe an element of there is you know I can do other other things involved in golf. Um, and I think that’s quite a healthy perspective to have. I think anytime you get really bogged down in anything you do, it’s quite it can be stifling to but you know deep down you’re really bloody good at playing golf. But there’s loads of really bloody good people who never played on, you know, who’ve never played on TV or like never. And that’s where, you know, you’ve got to be mindful of like the opportunity that I was given by like people like my parents or a couple of sponsors who’ve stood by me the whole time and you know because without that, you know, that that is that is basically your Yeah. What like what is the difference? Because there are so many people that miss out like oh they’ll be jumping at the bit to listen to this. You probably can’t pin it down or put something on it, but like what is the difference between being a bloody good golfer Yeah. and being a good professional golfer? Like like I think the travel I think the travel’s way way like the travel element and the lifestyle is is a lot different and more tough than people imagine. That would be my number one thing. So there has to be a um there’s like a a saturation point to it, right? So you’d think, oh these guys earn loads of money and they do this, but actually like if you went and stood in a I’m not going to use Rory as an example, but like I have like so much admiration for the top players in what in what they do in this sport because you know without getting the violin out like that the travel the things they have to do daytoday, week to week and they still turn up and play like they do for two decades in golf sometimes is it’s like incredible. I think it’s incredible. Mind-blowing. Um, and like you’ve got the general ups and downs of life that everyone’s experiencing that you never know about. So I think it’s and I think that that’s tougher than people think. Like so um and it and it wouldn’t necessarily always be linked to how you’re playing. I think a lot of people would look and say he’s playing great um his life’s amazing all that. actually like the the as you as you get older and your life changes and the pressures the pressures around that change I think there is a um that there would there’s like a kind of a point where probably everyone thinks is this is this like worth it ultimately is is it worth it and if you and if if if you don’t feel like you’re in that point where you’re like it’s financially doing what you needed to do or you don’t feel like you’re playing like you can a lot of people say it’s not I can do something else and enjoy my life a bit more. Yeah. the kind of nature of the sport is there’s so much ups and downs and it’s it’s like when getting the spirals up at the right time. Um and that there’s a bit of luck involved in that. You know, it’s just that was my word. There is a bit of luck. It went on a long time. I could have just said it’s luck, but No, but it’s true. Timing probably is one as well. Oh yeah. If you time your runs right or you the right event, everything it’s like, yeah, got to be in the right spot at the right time. Where did the penny drop? Where where did the tide change for you? Why why all of a sudden now handling pressure better than you did before? What what what happened? I know it comes through experience, possible wins. Probably asking the question for you, but um you know is it is it family? Is it moving away from what was normal say in Bath where you lived? Was it you know getting married, having babies? What what was it? Like it would be a combination of all of that. I I I know like co the the kind of pressure off thing I said enabled me to like there are a couple of things I’ve always wanted to do and I could try them and it didn’t really matter. Yeah. Um my wife lost her job in COVID so there was a little and that was our she was our mortgage payer very much so like you don’t have to look at me figure that out girl. So like that but I yeah and at that point we decided to our kind of big link to the southwest was her job and then we were like let’s go go up to sort of Surrey golf country easier bit easier travel let’s do that let’s do that for a year was the plan we rented somewhere for a year and gave it a go um and that that was good for me like that that playing with better players as well playing with better players playing um at great golf courses. Yeah, like you’re nearer the airport and and also like um in Bath it was like I was the the golfer from Bath whereas you go to Sar and like no no no one has a like no one really cares or has a clue and you’re just so I think that that was that was probably good for me. I think um I wor with some kind of great people at the time who were challenging me a bit in COVID which I think was I think I look back on that and I think what you need they brought me they they just I remember I was working with a psychologist at the time he’s he’s and he’s still like a friend he’s called Carl Morris and he basically said to me you know what what do we see as your main problems you know you tinker with your swing too much and you do this and he and he said to me when you go back and play why don’t you stop practicing on the range just do all your practice on the golf course you can warm up on the range go and do everything on the golf course. And he said to me, “Let’s be honest. What have you got to lose?” Cuz he was like, “You’re not your results crap.” That’s great though, is it? Like go and play it. You’re not going to play any worse. And so like I I think that’s like fantastic if you get someone who can be that honest and they they’ve got nothing to lose. So um and and they’re sort of challenging you. So that and that’s something I’ve tried to stay true to a little bit. definitely mess around with my swing a little bit less. And if I’m hitting balls, it’ll be with my coach and and that’s kind of the the time to do it, but I I I won’t mess around too much outside. You haven’t got such a scatty spaghetti brain going on. It’s very more clear, one-dimensional. See it, hit it, do it. Yeah. Nice. Like that philosophy. Brilliant. Good. Well, and then speaking of breakthrough moments, let’s go to Germany 2024. You’re guilty. or five last. Woohoo! Butterflies over the line. Uh, what was your first and foremost, what were your raw emotions finally getting that big scalp on the DP World Tour? I I felt like really calm all day. I was play cuz genuinely felt really real calm all day. I was play I was playing really well like especially Ter Green froze a bit with the putter. Um, but it was fine like because I was just I was hitting I felt like I was Ter Green stuff was like good enough to sort of carry me. Yeah. Um and then right at the end kind of I was had a little lead and hold these two like quite long putts. So that was a hu and it it did sort of take the pressure off but in terms of how I felt it was like Tim Barter asking me questions was then then you’re like okay I’m a bit more in touch. you’re probably suppressing a little bit what it means and what it feels and then he’s like 11 years on tour and 155 events or whatever he said and and then yeah and then you’re like it has been a even outside of that it was kind of a fairly long road to get there. So um Tim has that effect on you mate. Yeah he’s good you know he can pull the right strings can’t he? So yeah I think he um eaked a couple of tears out of me which was which was which was okay. Yeah. Nice. And then to obviously back it up a year later, it kind of gives you that nice bit of rhythm and momentum in your career, doesn’t it? How does it I guess how’s that built your confidence now to this season and to major championships and and all of the above? I think once you win, you you get out of that pool of people who haven’t and then um got yeah, naturally you’re looking at the next thing you can do. For me, I’ve not the start of the year I had this year where I was kind of challenging for a lot of events and got myself top 50 in the world, that kind of stuff was I wasn’t something I was really going for. I just was playing well. Um, and then and then it happens, doesn’t it? Like it’s not I wouldn’t I don’t I’m not like someone who sets a goal and says I’m going to play this tournament or do this or win this many events or try and qualify for X or Y.ve. I’ve tried to be like quite an in the moment sort of person at a time. One shot at a time. Yeah. Yeah. I mean maybe not that boring but like I know but just I’m trying to put it right into black and white moments. I know. I wasn’t like that. Revolutionary lineup next shot but um yeah but I think the more it boring close it. The best part about golf, if you could speak about golf when you’re playing well, is you you can go on these little journeys with with a feeling in your swing or a feel in your putting and it it’s quite that that’s the really exciting moment as a pro because you Yeah. you think how how good actually am I? Right. Like cuz I think until you you get in that sort of spiral and then your confidence naturally grows and you’re a bit less phased about it or there might there’s a whole multitude of reasons I think you know why you begin to feel more comfortable. It might mean a little bit less or it might u mean a little bit more but you’re able to know how to control that. Yeah. And I think um and then naturally you understand a bit more about your swing or a bit more about your traits under pressure and all that kind of stuff. So enabled and then I think you have the ability to go and play great events and see like you know when I’m at the best version of myself like how good am I? Um because if I’m not the best version of myself as like I’m I’m never never going to beat these guys top five top 10 in the world like no zero zero chance but when I’m at the best version of myself I can have a bit of a game like and this is all right like this. So then you think it’s and that’s that’s the point of golf I think everyone’s trying to get to. And I’d say the one thing that I’ve done my whole career is I’ve always chased better golf for myself. And that might sound like a bit of a woolly comment, but I’ve always tried in my own mind to think I I want to have the best shots available so that when it when it’s clicking for me, I can I can play great golf. like I can try and take some of the some of the really good players on, which yeah, I think sometimes that kind of search can, you know, you might have been better saying, right, I’ll stay in my lane and chip away with my the 275 fade down the middle, but I’m trying to chase the 290 or the 300 in the air type deal. Um, and yeah, the way the golf is kind of evolving, like all the like young kids who are playing and stuff, it’s I think that pushes everyone forward to keep to keep trying to improve, looking for better shots, looking for for a kind of better all round golf game cuz I I mean, I had a moment, you know, this is going back a long way now. And this is going back to what you alluded to a little bit later. you know, I watched you with a plethora of amazing players around you and they’re all out here on tour at the same time with you, you know, on the what’s it third tier? It was the Euro Pro tour and then, you know, you weren’t make you weren’t winning. No, I mean, and that shock the hell out of me. I’m watching this guy on a range stripe it and I’m just thinking insane in the membrane, insane in the brain. I’m thinking that song’s coming to mind again, but it’s just between your ears. I’m thinking, what is this dude doing, man? This man’s got it by the short and curies. You know, he’s got he can get over the line here and get off here onto the challenge tour, get himself, you know, way out in the distance, but you never did. And then all of a sudden it then it clicked. Yeah. What what what how low were you then and how are you how did it get you? Where did it get you? What did you learn from it? It’s all relative because for example the Euro Pro I I do look back and the ironic thing is there some of the best years of like some of the most fun I’ve ever had playing golf. Yeah. You you get in the car on a like a Tuesday morning. Yeah. Philip like you know you’ll have a I had a Citroen C2 which was a tiny little car. It used to be about four of us and there were four sets of golf clubs. Like we and we’d bundle up to to a track up north and like Do you ever sleep in a car? Uh no. It never got it never got that bad for me, but Ive you know slept slept in a like some do you know just some dodgy places but it’s um but they’re like they were great times and all like a lot of the good stories I have from golf or good memories I have are actually from those periods. So you are literally traveling with with some of your best mate like Jordan’s out here now. I used to travel a lot with Smithy and then um Eddie Eddie Pep he he he had to slug it out for a year on Europro but mates from home Steve Surrey Louis Boston still like best as well. All of them. Unbelievable. Yeah, it was it was great. Um, so it’s when you say like, you know, you’re looking back and they were low periods and like the irony is they weren’t necessarily I had so much fun doing it, but it was just not what I wanted to do really. Not a learning curve, not what my heart wanted, but yeah, but it’s it’s like I try with, you know, it’s part of the process, but equally I wouldn’t really swap those years. They’re fun. Like they genuinely fun. You mentioned earlier you didn’t have, I guess, heaps of goals and targets, but is there anything now that you’re playing to such a level? Is there any new things that have come into your mind? Ala, maybe a little Ryder Cup or anything that you have got your eyes on? I mean, like the they even the Ryder Cup feels like a long feels like a long way off to me. like we’ve got I I’m I think I would have to play six six times before anything was picked or selected or qualified for and I would have to play so well in my own mind to even factor into Luke’s head that it’s like this isn’t such a boring answer, but it’s just for me I’ it’d be like such a waste of time to think beyond trying to play great in Scotland. But um like I said before, I would just love to see where my best golf gets me. If I can keep sort of putting one foot in front of the other and stay injuryfree and all those kind of stuff. It would be it’d be like exciting to see. Um but I I wouldn’t put a like a sort of like a target on my back or I couldn’t sit here and be like I’m going to win a major. He’s looking long loose and full of juice. He’s looking fit as fudger’s dog. He’s looking got too many gray hairs, has he? Good color top. So good color. All right, mate. Yeah. I mean, you look the part mate. You look a part strong at the moment, mate. He does. Big back. Yeah. Yeah. Big strong. Like guy big back. Uh the guy the guy I’m working on at the moment is trying to Well, like I Let’s be fair. I’m trying to desperately put some weight on get some on. But he’s he’s always trying to talk about my back. He wants he wants me like hump your cheese. Oh, push it out. Says, “Mag imagine you’re an accordion. You got to like work your way up from the bottom.” So I tell you what, if I do that, it it shows off my double D’s. Uh, and look, let’s wind back the clock a little bit. We’ve talked about the DP World Tour, but there’s obviously a chapter where you popped over to a different tour uh in 2022. You sprinkled and dabbled into live golf. Can you dive into it a little bit about like how does that process work? What’s the transition like? Do they write you a letter and say, “Hey, you want to come with us?” Do they dangle a bit of cash in front of you? Bit of moocha chow. Um, or does the agent just ring you and go, “Hey, what are your thoughts on this?” I mean, I don’t know this for sure, but my my sort of understanding of how how it was sort of happening was the earlier on that the year it launched there was a tournament in Saudi. I think they had a lot of players signed up. I don’t know how many, but a lot of the top 50 were were ready to go once they got to a number. And then I I think the Phil Mickelson thing happened with um the journalist and being honest I think a lot of the guys then pulled out and said I’ve got to move out and it it basically meant they had to find some players to to play in the league for the for for that first year. Um and I was I think I just got top 100 in the world. I was kind of within that um sphere if you like. And the yeah, I think the first event was in like an hour up the road in Centurion and it was for I I remember my agent phoned me and said there is going to be a tournament at Centurion. It’s in six weeks. It’s $25 million and I and it’s three rounds of golf. And I was like and I was like what what’s on what’s on the same week and you know what what we what we playing? Um and I wasn’t playing in that event on the DP World Tour in within the schedule. So I said I said like definitely go and have a game and like it it obviously look the whole narrative around the first year two years of live and and the established tours was was awful. like the whole um I I I went and played and like I I I went and played because it was an amazing financial opportunity for a player like me and um and it in that respect did did change change elements of like my made made parts of my life easier for sure. I would say that but the So so how did you go in that in that Centurion event? I think I held on for about a 19th place finish and then we came third in the team event. All right. Brilliant. Yeah. And what’s that? Pick up. Uh I I You watch the full car. No, I I don’t I don’t so to have another baby. I think the first year I know well the first year I played on the I played eight events. My highest finish was seventh and I earned $3.2 $2 million which was twice what I’d earned in a decade of playing as a pro. Wow. So it was like absolutely incred like that that as an opportunity for for a pro is was amazing. Was it a kick to the solar plexes though to see like not going to be a part of it anymore? And how difficult was it to bring yourself back in to get your car back again to play on out here? Exactly. Like you can look at that two-way and the end of that year I’m there with category 19 or 20 going into the next year on tour. Oh yeah. No no starts nothing. No starts on live at that point. You went to a reserve didn’t you? Yeah. So you’d gone you’d gone to live eight events and then you like how awkward is it all just like confusing is it to play a whole year as a reserve? Well I mean really if you’re being honest they threw me a bone like cuz I didn’t have anything else. They said you can reserve for us. And I ended up play as a couple of guys got injured. I ended up playing quite a lot of golf there. So I think it’s hard for me to say I knew what I was signing up for because I actually didn’t. Not many. Like I I think there are guys who were going for three, four, five, six year commitments who had a or perhaps had an an idea or um equity in the team, that kind of stuff. Who who knew the knew the plan. I I I went because it was loads of money. Um and and and the and the events and the people that ended up playing by by the middle end of that year, the fields were were incredible. So that but but I wouldn’t make any bones about that and I I don’t have to cuz I like I’m I felt like one of the lucky ones in terms of it was um my reasons for going were but you know I feel I could say that to anyone and it’s it’s my job and it’s how how I and my money is is is going and you know I basically eat what I kill. I’m not um I’m not loed up and I’m not I’m I’m yeah you know without without getting the violin out a kid from Bath and I play golf and try and earn some money. So, like, you know, if you get an opportunity to do that, you know, I’d be behind someone trying to do that. So, um that was that was where I that was where mentally my head was at with with Liv. Um but it’s at the same time like I don’t want that to sound um I I appreciate the opportunity to play that and and like I said, being a reserve in 2023, they that was a bit of a you know, that was a result for me. I I wasn’t getting any starts out here. Um I had an invite at the end of 22 and I played well at the open champs that just about kept me a category for the following year. Um which turned out to be really important. So you in the context of it wasn’t it was a tough year mentally cuz I I knew how much I enjoyed the tour and evolving I missed people missed missed the staff here missed a lot of the players but the um yeah then the payoff in terms of what it meant for for me kind of financially and for probably for my family was was important. Was there any like rift or snub noses because like we’ve talked to other players and it was like they said they came back and almost felt hated at times. Was there any of that for you? Did you feel comfortable? Like hand on heart I know how I’d have felt about someone else in my situation who’d done that. Yeah. Yeah. So I didn’t get really any heat. I got um my best mate Eddie Peril didn’t like me doing it, you know. So that was tough. Yeah. He’s one of my best mates and he he couldn’t understand my reasoning for it. Um he didn’t like the the principles of of of it. So he gave me a hard time. Um but but like we got like got over it like and I think you usually if you talk to your mates you’ll get through stuff like good friends are all about it though, right? Yeah. They have to tell you what they think but by and large um if people slag me off they did it behind my back which I was fine with. Um, so I was like, yeah, so just I had I had to sort of just keep my head down, crack on. Um, and I was comfortable with the people around me in kind of my circle, my my troop, so to speak. They were supportive. So that’s that’s really kind of all all I I would really focus on in that scenario anyway. And because you were one of the first or the first player to qualify for the PGA Championship or the the players championship via rankings, so like you kind of broke the mold a little bit, I guess, right? Uh yeah, I was the first live player to play on the PJ tour. Yeah. Yeah. So I I mean I always wanted to create history. So that there you go. Rock and roll. I don’t uh Yeah. Again, like that was that was a ser like a strange week. Um, normally you might get one or two people wanting to speak to you and there was there was literally loads of journalists who wanted to speak to me all of a sudden like and I was like there’s nothing you handle that. Well, no, but but I just mean they all wanted to just there was nothing there was no real story to tell in my book. It was like a but but it’s I guess it’s a story by the nature of what’s happening with the tours and all the stuff we were talking about before. So, but when you play the players jumps, you get these um you get the these Tiffany cufflinks and they’ve got they’re amazing. They’ve got like the little um players logo and Oh, nice. he come and they do a like a rookie the first the virgins like all sit in a circle and he comes around and hand hands the tip. Really? Yeah. In a big punch and then and then there’s like a press pool. So, it was really weird because um I had like a bit of a pack of journalists which were like nine of them with their little recording things in your face and then uh and then Jay Monahan kind of teeping around with his Tiffany boxes and his assistant being like that’s Larry Caner that’s the live guy. So, so really yeah so then but no he he’s and the whole experience of playing there and and the events I’ve played that side have been awesome. I mean, you ready to jump ship? Like, meaning in the sense of one, you know, taking all your stuff heading over, you know, over the Atlantic to America if you get if you do qualify. I’m not going to count your chickens yet. You know, there’s a lot of golf to be played. Uh, Mrs. Caddy Max, who’s been a lifesaver. What a great guy. I remember seeing him on the Euro Pro. You had a great bond. Played was it England schools together mentioned earlier. I mean all that if if it does make the move, what what preparations you got in store for yourselves if you do make that move? And where would you live? Where would you base yourself? You going to go and join Matt Fitzpatrick at the Bears Club and rub shoulders with Jack Nicholas? I I don’t have a huge desire to move to America. I’ve got two two daughters who are both on well two and nine months. It’s just different. It’s the whole their lifestyle is different. Would you have said this seven, eight years ago? What with No. Like if you were going Yeah. Yeah. Would you seven, eight years ago, would your mindset be the same? Uh, I reckon if you I reckon the So the 10 card thing on this tour is is unbelievable opportunity for the players, right? I have to agree with that. I look at it and I’m like you get 10 you get you get 10 guys and you get this chance to go over and play the tour and you get you not only get that, you get an absolute free roll of the dice because if you don’t play well there, you just come back and play with a great kate here next year. So, you’re in this kind of golden period of your life and and I I think it’s really well suited to someone who can go and um fully like immerse himself and and to do and that that as you get older and that just becomes harder like if you have if you have a family and you have more considerations and then you think about your own well-being and happiness within all that. Um, yeah, it’s just pro probably moving for me to go and move to golf country in America is is a is a massive change like so, you know, I potentially thinking about moving I would potentially think more Middle East or we play a lot there in in uh as part of the DP tour and I feel like kind of close links with Europe and in the Middle East like I I kind of love those areas. But I mean I I experienced both. I was fortunate, but like I look at DP World Tour and I see the the expanse of different golf courses, different cultures. I get to witness and how I grown as a person. I’m still a nutter of course, but like you know, you’re the same. You’re from the same county even though we speak differently. You’re posher than me. I’m a little bit more rough and tumble and you hear it. Wouldn’t have picked really. I’m a more and he’s a bit Well, so you’re a bath you’re a bath fan as well, aren’t you? Rugby fan. He’s going to get knocked out. He’s breasty. Is he going to get knocked out? His mate’s Matt Banahan, by the way, who’s a 6’6 monster? He’s a big full of tattoos and could run through a brick wall backwards. Are you trying to scare me? Yeah, I am trying to scare I know. All right. You’re Mr. New Zealand, Mr. All Blacks. All right. All right. I got best of the bunch. But no, he all right. I’m a Bristol Bears fan through and through. And he’s a bar fan. And they won the title, didn’t they? Rightly so. And all I could see you as a rugby player actually, man. You just fell out a bit. about just too small. Just break you with like you look at Dami McKenzie, you know. Oh yeah. If he’s a foot shorter than me and probably still weighs more, doesn’t he? No. No. He’s He’s tiny. He is tiny. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You’d eat him for breakfast. What like What is is rugby for you just your favorite outside of golf? Or probably even more than golf? No, I prefer rugby to golf. Yeah. I think like as a sport as a sporting spectacle, that’s great. team event, huh? It’s gladatorial, isn’t it? It’s like It’s one of the only things where they can still There’s like some genuine violence. I love it. Like, I love it. And you love a fine wine as well. Coffee, wine. Yeah. You’ve picked this straight out from my they coffee, wine. Yeah. I think my European tour bio says something massively cringe like never been a concoction. Loves coffee, wine, and skiing. It’s like sound more like a top. Um, coffee wine. Yeah. Well, I like coffee and wine. Cheese and wine. Oh, coffee and wine. Yeah. Not together. Well, I was just thinking what? No, no, no. Like just it would be like it would be like a red wine and Yeah. So, how did you c how did you celebrate your wins? Your two DP World Tour wins. Was there any sort of let the hair down moments there? I had the the first one we were going straight to another tournament. So, and we were me and Max, my caddy were on a period of like, this is going to sound so boring for a thing, but we were going for a period of not drinking. So, we’re having like alcohol-free beers during the week and stuff. And then we got to Sunday, I was like, you know what, mate, I feel so good. Let’s we’ll stick with that. But then, uh, yeah, we ended up drinking. Um, which is which is fine, which I think is fair. Um, that’s very fair. And then Bahrain was Yeah, I had a party at home. Bahrain. Um and actually more b after bahrain I got into the top 50 in the world got the masters so I had a big party there. Nice. How good was that second shot into the last? How pure How did you know did you know as soon as you hit it? Uh oh about the Masters. I thought you were talking about the Masters as well. Well that’s my bad. Plus nine going up going up 18 on Friday. No think I did the right trap. Cheers mate. What hell are you going to bring out the masses? I know the result. I’m not going to bring that up. I’m talking about the positives. Plus n plus 10 actually the last um let’s talk about that one first. All right. No, I just I just had a Yeah, it was it was good. It was a good shot. I had good shot. I had it in exactly the same place in the 18 volt and bailed out and hit it left. So I just it was like a it was I was just don’t bail out was what I was go for it thinking. Yeah. Was it one of them Tiger mates where you give it the tour and you go, “Yeah, that’s the one.” It’s not a Tiger quote, but still the coolest thing in golf is the guy, who’s the player who said, “Be the right club today. Be the right club today.” Be the right club. That’s for me one of the the iconic lines. Um, be the right club today. Just before we wrap up, I kind of want to talk about that 10 over par round for some reason. Um, why would you want to do that? No, it’s two five overs. I shot. Yeah. Thank you. Oh, that’s very respectable. It was consistent. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But how was the Masters? No, it was that’s why he’s wearing the green. Yeah, it was. Yeah. Um, it was great. The uh I think it definitely takes a couple of days when you turn up at the venue. It’s it’s there’s a different feel to it. Um I know people have kind of discussed feeling like maybe you’re bit walking on eggshells like it’s you’re being watched and I I understand what they mean. It’s um it’s like it’s different. The environment is different. The way you practice you you kind of get people I’ll give you an example on the putting green. Normally we we get a little machine out and roll our ball and my caddy got out to do Augusta immediately someone’s on him saying what are you doing? We you can’t do that. You can’t do that here. Yeah. So it’s like you know all of a sudden the our putting preparation is slightly different. Um there’s kind of green jackets everywhere. First day I think we turned up in our rental car and I got told, “Oh, you’re given a Mercedes this week and we would appreciate if that car didn’t return to the property.” So I was like, “What was it a little C5 that you No, it wasn’t. It was like Ferraris Aston Martin. It wasn’t that. It was just I think it was more looking after their their brand and their and it was a Chrysler but with a couple of kids seats in the back full of food. So um but it was Yeah. So needless to say, you know, if you play by their rules and um but I think as a it’s a golf tournament and environment, it’s I I get the hype and I I missed the cut. I went out on Saturday just to have a walk cuz I was like I had some mates there and I was I’ll go out for an hour. Yeah. And went there for I was in the ground stand for six hours. I loved it, you know. I went and got got my Aelia and watched the golf and took it in. And like I’m really glad I did that because it’s I think until you kind of experience that kind of thing. There’s, you know, there’s no you haven’t got any digital scoreboards, any um there’s no TV, there’s no playback. Everything’s live. You hear rules. Everyone talks about it, but actually you need to be there and see it and feel it. Um and so yeah, I mean it’s I think it’s the coolest golf tournament there is. Yeah. I’d love to know. um by the next time we talk to you or by the end of your career, what would be a really satisfying list of achievements for you? Like what would you like when you’re 45, 50, you’re like, “Yeah, I’ve done well.” What what does what does that checklist need for you to be really satisfied and content with with your career? Good question. Do you ask that every show? No. No. I’ve never thought I’ve never really thought about that. I feel I feel I mean I feel quite like I feel like relatively content now. I don’t feel like I’m there’s loads I’d like to achieve but I don’t um I don’t feel a big sense of like needing to do something if that makes sense. I um I would love to play I’d love to play a bit on the PJ tour. I think that would be great. I think I’d love to I’d obviously love to win on the PJ tour. I think that would be like a a great goal. I think that with with the right kind of help and stuff, I think that’s achievable. Um, for example, the year I’m having at the moment, I still feel like I could if I if I play well in the right cup of events, I could dabble a run at this order of merit. Um, and I know that’s like you’ve got Rory at the top of it. So, you’re like, it’s pretty good luck. Um, but I I look at that and I’m like, I’m going to play loads more tournaments than him. And um, you never like you never know. You never know. So big that would be that you know get I think if you what a title like for a European player if you could get to the end of year and say you know Europe’s number one now whoever you are Europe’s number one but you know in terms of the the money list this side and all that stuff that would be an like that would be an amazing thing to say you did so um I don’t I don’t feel like I there’s no kind of fulfillment journey within that but that would be something something like that would be an amazing thing to say you’ve done I think beautifully said think big, dream big, big, do it all big. There you go, Lori. It’s been an absolute pleasure, mate. We wish you all the best. Um, and yeah, I genuinely look forward to seeing you tick off goals that you haven’t put to yourself. Cuz I think they’re going to creep up on you. Thanks. Another Somerset boy to another. You are love to bet. You are savoy. Sal. Well done, lads. [Music] To watch another DP World Tour video, click here. 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