CBS Sports Golf Announcer Mark Immelman sits down with World No. 4 Russell Henley and 1987 Masters Tournament champion Larry Mize at the #RussellHenleyJr Junior-Am lunch.
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I have the distinct honor to introduce three gentlemen who are uh very impactful to this community, very special to Columbus, and we hope that um you’ll enjoy what they have to say. Um first of all, I’d like to introduce Mark Ilman. We call him up to the stage. Mark is a well, he’s Columbus resident. He’s a former college golf coach at Columbus State University. He’s turned CBS Sports and PGA Tour broadcaster. He’s uh just a man of many talents. Uh so we appreciate you being here. He’s going to moderate this uh this little deal here. And then next uh many of you probably recognize him from what I like to think is probably the greatest highlight career in the history of golf. Um he’s 1987 Mast’s champion and Columbus resident Larry Mai. And last but not least, we have fivetime PGA Tour winner. We have member of the US team, RDER Cup team in 2025, the number four player in the world. We’re so excited to welcome the stage Russell Henley. It’s a thrill to be here with these two guys who need no introduction whatsoever. In fact, I’m not sure why I am on the stage. Maybe it’s the strange accent just to add a little little something different. Um, all we’re going to do here for a little while is probe the minds of these two great champions because when I’m not doing this sort of stuff, I have a podcast and the podcast is there to help people learn from grade 12 was like these two guys. So, when I was asked to do this, I was like, “Yes, I can ask questions of these two great minds.” So, if you have questions toward the end, just raise your hand. We’ll take one or two. But we have some prepared questions that have come from the uh AJA Instagram account. So, without further ado, let’s start with our tournament host, the number four ranked golfer in the world. And so, I have to start this. Junior golf. The Russell Henley Junior Golf Championship. The inspiration. Where’d that come from? Talking. Did I just see my back? I just talk like this. Y’all hear me? Okay. Um, so Michael actually called me uh originally before this and started and said, “Hey, I really want to talk to you about getting an AJ event here in Columbus, Georgia.” And was wondering if you would consider using we could use your name. And I my first reaction was, “Ah, I don’t know if I want to do that. I don’t know if I’ll be home. I don’t know what that’s going to look like.” And the more he pitched it, the more we talked about it, the more men we got from sponsors like Sovas and uh Green Island got excited about it. This the staff, the members, everybody is has come together and just, you know, been so supportive of it. I just realized that this is a no-brainer. This is going to be awesome. And uh when I was growing up, uh I don’t know where everybody is from, but when I was grow up in Mon, Georgia, I just wanted to talk to a pro. That was like what I wanted to do. I just I would love five minutes with a pro to talk to them. I didn’t know what I was doing different. I didn’t know if I was on the right track. I just I just wanted to see to pick their brain and see what what they were, you know, thinking and what what they would tell me about my game. I would love for them to tell me all the things they think I need to work on. Anything. Just give me something, you know. And so once this kind of got some momentum that I realized this is actually kind of what I I dreamed of when I was, you know, a junior golfer. I wanted to speak to a pro. I wanted to be able to do that. And so, you know, what I want to do this week is be available. And I tried to make that clear to everybody I met today. It was awesome meeting everybody. I’ve met a lot of the parents. Um, I want y’all to be able to pick my brain and uh ask me any question you have because I’m a little bit farther down the road. I I was where y’all are. My parents were dropping me around the southeast, all over the country, taking me to golf tournaments. And uh, you know, without my parents, I wouldn’t have had the opportunity. But that’s that’s kind of the big thing for me is I want to, you know, make this tournament better every every year and and see how we can improve, but also want I want to try to be here. So, this is cool for me to be able to do that and be that be the pro instead of uh wishing I was getting talked. So golfers who playing, go and tell your friends about how great Columbus was, what a cool event this is, and let’s continue to grow this thing. So, how about we pick their brains? Now, with us on the stage is the 1987 Masters Channel. Little backstory. I’ve gotten to know Larry very well over the last few years, but when I was a young kid like you, there was this guy that chipped in to beat two of my heroes in the game, Civisteros and Greg Norman. And I did not like Larry Mis. Anyway, fast forward. There’s there’s there’s a long list of guys that Anyway, fast forward. I moved to Columbus. I get to meet Larry. I’ve worked with him on his game for a little while. Um, and now I get to call him a friend. Uh, now I’m going to ask Larry to share with you guys what is arguably the greatest chip shot in the history of golf. And if your kids haven’t seen it, go to YouTube, type in Larry Ma’s purple shirt. You’ll see what I’m talking about. Have it there. Well, you know, I I think you’ve got a great person here with Russ sending us up and he will be available. And one thing that I like to pass along to you is, you know, because we’ve all been where y’all are and want to get our games better. And I always like to encourage people, work on everything, but whatever you do, your short game can never be good enough. So, always continue to work on your short game. It’s one of the things Les and I, we’ve enjoyed competing and practicing together with a short game, and that’s a great way to do it. But get that short game and carry you a long way in this game. As far as a chip shot, you know, Sammy Bowie number 10, Greg and I go to a number 11. And I flared shot out to the right to Khan to the left to Green on 11. And Greg hits it on the right friend. So my thinking is I want to hit a good aggressive shot, put the pressure back on him because he’s, you know, 40 feet from the hole for Verie. Um, but one of the worst things is you can be in golf is indecisive. You know, you really have to commit to the golf shot. I’m I don’t like hitting a bad shot, so I can handle it. But what infuriates me is I hit a bad shot because I wasn’t committed to it. Because bad shots are going to happen. It’s part of the game. It’s a game of misses. Whoever misses it the best and makes a touch norally wins. So I wanted to make sure I was committed to that shot. But one of the great things about it was you practice the little pitch and run a lot at Augusta because you got the tight dry grass around the range. Sometimes you can’t fly out on the green arc fast and that was the situation of that shot there. So I had to play a little pitching run. I had to use a 56 degree sand wedge which is all we used back in those days. Excuse me. And uh because anything with less off would have run into Kapal. So you know I played it back in my stance, hit a little pitcher rod. I picked out a spot uh because with the short game in my opinion, you want to make sure you want to pick out a spot where you want the ball to land and not focus too much on the target because if you pick the spot where it lands and figure it’s going to run to the target, you want to focus on that. You focus on the target, sometimes you’re going to have trouble with distance control. So you want to focus on where the ball was want where you want the ball to land. I did that landed just short. I knew it was going to go right to left. Trying to put pressure back on Greg and sure enough it went in and I went run around screening like that. And now he’s forever M’s champion. Something Larry gets to do that Russell doesn’t yet is go to a little dinner on Tuesday night at the Augusta National Golf Club. But he he has lunch with me in the Jamie’s locker room every year though. It’s a just some sports. Larry the champions that must still be a fruit. It’s it’s incredible. I mean, from from all the great champions I’ve got to know and talk with over the years and listen to the hear Jackie Burke Jr. and Sam Sneeed discussion stuff discussing stuff. It’s just been incredible. And now to see all these Greg Dun players, your Tiger, Scotty Sheffller, Russell, I’m I’m afraid I’m going to be there still with me. Um and uh it’s just a great dinner where it’s just the past champions and Fred Ridley or whoever is the chairman there is uh is with us and uh it’s a night I look forward to every year. It’s just uh so special. You will be representing the United States in just one of the automatic selections for Captain Keegan Bradley. So he did not have to stress a call on Wednesday morning horning. Um he played the President’s Cup. Scotty Sheper found himself a new partner. By the way, um you must be excited. I’m excited. It’s dream come true. Uh I never really would have thought that my 13th season on tour I would make Kayaka. You know, I for some reason thought I guess I just didn’t think this far down the road, but I felt better better about my game. I felt uh like I’ve gotten the Lopez Yas more and more and uh I’m just I’m just overwhelmed with with excitement. I I I really don’t even have the words to describe it, but uh team anything with a team I get really excited about. Last year playing on the President’s Cup, uh just have the teammate to lean on whether you’re on the course or the locker room or having your meals. It’s just such a different environment compared to a regular event. And uh I I can’t wait. Right. How about we do this? We try and get some advice on how to play better golf out of these two guys. You up for that? All right, Russell. Um when I’ve caught ladder cups and president’s cups, I’ve been nervous in the first and I’m folding microphone. Yeah. The first te experience. Now you haven’t been there yet. You know, you’ve done the president’s cup. You’ve been a couple. talk about how you deal with the nerds of a situation like that, please. Yeah. So, real quick before I answer that, like when I moved to Columbus in 2019, I was really struggling with my game and uh uh I I told Larry that I was going to be we had played in the two masters together already and I told uh Larry that I was going to be moving here and ever since then he has been like the best mentor for me. And so these types of questions are the types of questions I usually ask Larry because he’s been there and he’s just been incred. You know, I can call him any time of day and he’s been there for me. Uh not just with golf stuff, but with with life stuff. So I I I’ve asked Larry a lot of these questions. So really what I have figured out works for me and I haven’t experienced the first of a Ryder Cup and I know that’s probably going to be different. We I played No Way President’s Cup. That was intense. Um, a lot of music, a lot of um, people yelling as you take your swing. You know, they do the uh, which is different than tour. But, you know, I think what I’ve realized for me is I when I try to calm down, I usually get more nervous. I try to almost ramp it up a little bit. You know, almost use my intensity to grab a hold of the situation a little bit more. Um, and I just feel like when I embrace those nerves, embrace the butterflies, uh, because that’s really why I play, you know, I want to see what I’m made of in the toughest situation. And I feel like I do better with it. Now, that doesn’t mean I always do per I’m always perfect with it. I’m going to be nervous, but I like to almost uh try to treat it like I’m, you know, like are playing a different sport. Just try to get up for it a little bit. Well, he’s he’s right on. I mean, I want to just, you know, write pigtails on that, cocktails on that. You know, you want to use the nerves to your in your favor because to me, if you don’t get nervous, something drawer. Anybody says, “I don’t get nervous out there.” I’ll tell you right now, I really don’t believe nothing if you don’t care. So, what the whole thing is, I like to say, we want those butterflies flying in formation all over the place. So, you just want to embrace it like like like Russell said, embrace it. You realize there are 12 guys that are going to be there playing with them and there are hundreds thousands of other guys wish they were there. So enjoy the fact that you’re there. Realize the nerves are a great thing. Nerves help you focus, help you hit it farther, help you do so many good things. You just want to embrace that and enjoy it and keep in perspective. I mean, you know, we got to realize that my Christian faith is very important to me and I get grounded with that knowing this isn’t life or death. It’s what I do for a living. I need to work hard at it. Keep in perspective, control, believe in your work. You know, you have good mental thoughts before you go out there. Think of other shots you’ve hit in the fairway. Visualize that shot you want to hit and knock it down the fair and just realize it’s going to be okay one way or another. Always like Dr. Carrie Middle come and he says, you know, I’m okay if I don’t win or something because if my wife’s still going to love me, my no good doesn’t bite me. But you just want to embrace those lures to realize there are a lot of people that wish they were your shoes. Well, I guess along those lines, a lot of teenagers in the group here and they will ask for collegians and professionals. Looking back, Larry, what would you say to your teenage self having seen all of it now? Every level of GA been successful. Looking back, what would you say to a young year? For me, um, I would say u, you know, I I looking back, I could have had a better work ethic. You know, I could have done a little thing. I I will say Russell has a tremendous work ethic. I really love his work ethic and it’s one of the reason he is fourth in the world. Got a great work ethic. The other thing I would say is I was a shy bit uh and I didn’t uh I didn’t play enough outside of Georgia. I didn’t want to go out there. I would have tried to play in some of the bigger tournaments because there’s no there’s no substitute for experience. So when I went off to college and even when I got on tour, I didn’t have near the experience these other guys playing in the transmiss the you know the north south the all these things all these great tournaments and traveling around and I would have done more of that if I if I was able to and I think I would have been able to but I just did push that envelope to do that. I was just more of a homebody and I would say more competition you could play in the better. Uh it’s just there’s no substitute for that. Good thing for the AJ, right? AJ is great playing at these tournaments. I I never know if it was a Brown back when I played, but I never did anything like that. And so, uh, this is a great thing playing stuff like this is excellent. Russell, you don’t have the benefit of gray hair like me. But, uh, if you are talking to teenage Russ, yeah, I mean, I agree with that. Like the more you play tournaments, the more you can kind of figure out what am I doing wrong, what am I doing right? And then just kind of learning to deal with your game when it doesn’t feel good all the time. There’s so many days I play where the club just doesn’t feel quite as good in my hands or I’m a little bit anxious over a chip or whatever it is. And when the more you play turbus, the more you learn to deal with stuff like that. And uh that’s a big part of uh taking your game to the next level is making your bad rounds, your own pupable rounds just a little bit better. Right, that’s all I got. Kids, any questions for these two champions? Anybody raise your hand? Yes. Oh, what do you do different from stroke play and match play? Like do you change anything? Uh the question was between stroke play and match play, is there anything different that you do? Yeah, I think uh I think every situation’s different in match play. You know, with stroke play, I’m typically kind of paying attention to my own game until basically the last nine moles on Sunday to see where I’m at. If I need to be a little more aggressive to try to get closer to a lead or if I need to just continue with my game plan. So, um, with match play, I think every every it’s so situational. You know, if I’m playing match play against Larry and I hit it, you know, out of bounds on the first T- shot and all of a sudden he might he might change his strategy, you know, if he might take less of a chance off the tee. So, I think that match play, you just kind of have to play each hole um just and be able to react a little bit to what um the person you’re playing against is doing. But, uh, if it’s a kind of in a rhythm of a match where where you, um, where you feel like you’re if you’re playing well and, um, you know, sometimes you just don’t want to change much. You know, I I think with last year the president’s golf, I haven’t played a lot of these team events, but I just kind of felt like as a partner for Scotty last year and just if you’re playing against me, if I played my normal game, which I played all last year, played really well, which was pretty solid, if I played that game, it would they’d have to play really well to beat me. So that was always my my focus in match like can I just play my normal solid game and that’s pretty hard to beat. And so I don’t know if that helps but those are kind of two calls I have. That’s a great question. First off I I agree with everything he said. The only other thing I would really add would be you need to always expect your opponent to pull off a shot. Too many times is oh he’s here and you play a little too conservative and he’ll he or she’ll come back and do something well. So, you still have to play the golf course and play your shots, but and you know, you have be aware of what he’s doing, but always remember, expect them to make the shot because then if they do make the shot, you messed up now, that can really blow your momentum. So, continue to push, continue to try to do well and I think that’ll carry you a lot. We have time for one more. Yes. Um, what routines or like habits do you help you stay consistent week after week? real fast. The question does routines or habits week to week for the professional golf. Uh in terms of like practice or like when I’m on the golf course? Uh both. Okay. Um so for me, I I have kind of what I like to call a touching the bases, which would be I have about 15 minutes of uh on on I have like a putting mat I was telling you about earlier where I just work on like my setup. I’m literally working on trying to make sure my setup is good. And I have one thing with my stroke I work on. Typically, I have a little bit too much arc. So, I’ll work on having a little less arc. And I’ll hit like 25 really focused, really intentional putts doing that. Uh, working on my kind of my two tendencies that get a little bit off. And then I’ll go into um some performance kind of drills with putting. And it takes me about 45 minutes to an hour. I try to do it pretty much every day. And that doesn’t really change too much until I get to the tournament. So every part of my game I have something similar to the potting where there’s some fundamental work and I have some performance work. And I try to just be really consistent like total amount of practice solar practice day would probably be four and a half hours if I do everything every part of the game. Um and then plus if I play and then in tournaments you know I have the benefit of having a caddy. So my caddy has done all this research on this golf course. We’ve talked about how we’re going to play the golf course and uh just kind of our interactions. We’ve gotten so used to how we speak to each other. Uh that’s really consistent. He’s never going to like I’m never going to catch my caddy typically saying like way more than I wanted to say. Like it’d be too much information. Try to just keep everything the same. Uh same amount of info. Once we get a decision, I like to say out loud um kind of my two swing thoughts, which is I always say level uh level and get through it. and I I actually say it out loud. Sometimes you won’t hear I might mumble it, but those are kind of some things I do to kind of get in the mindset of of back to hitting the shot. So, um, but let’s talk about that later. We have one more time. I’ve heard him say that when I’m on the golf course for CBS. Say the question again. Routines. Routine. Well, one thing that helped me later on uh that uh it was good after a round I would go do short game first and then hit balls because a lot of times after a round I’d go hit balls and then I go to the short game and I started getting tired and the short game got neglected and I I think once again I need to keep my short game sharp. Um that was a strength of mine I wanted to keeping sharp. I think it’s it’s where you get momentum in this game. I mean great up and downs. You look at Scotty Shepard at the British Open this year. I mean, he makes some great two 15 footers for par early in the round and stuff like that. His shore game kept his momentum going and he’s great about that as is Russell. So, that was one thing routine I changed to get there. And the other that mean everything Russell said is great. And then the other thing I think about is having a pre-shot routine and staying in my routine. I got it to where my routine was down so much when I did get nervous and I’d go through the routine where I would tap my 12 on my shoe. I’d go in there, do a cleansing breath, kind of calm the nerves a little bit and I got over the shot and I felt like I’m in my comfort zone because I’m doing the same thing every time. So that really when it even when I had the nerves, it calmed me down because I’m in my pre-show routine. Do the same thing every time. And you’d like to do it about the same amount of time, whether it’s whatever it may be, just doing the same thing over and over will really help you with it when anytime, but definitely when you’re under a lot of pressure. Let me add something to that real quick. So, playing with Scotty last year, the one thing I noticed if we were three down or if we were three up, I I noticed the cadence and the speed in which you walk down the fairway and the speed at which he walks into every single shot is the same every time. If you go back and look at clips of Tiger and Jack and you know, now I’m going to put Scotty in and one of the greats of the game. Uh, it’s it’s almost like the speed never changes. So that’s a little to pay attention to and I can’t emphasize what he said enough about Scotty keeping an even kill. You got to keep an even keep. I remember when I first got on tour I’m playing Barber Tal Hillhead the second year and I’m excited because I couldn’t get into my rookie year and uh I got off playing good and I mean I was so jacked up. I only rudded the next TE and I said okay I had to learn to calm down and keep it real calm. I think the example of Sky is great because he doesn’t it it I’ve noticed that too. He just doesn’t change any walks the same speed doesn’t matter. So keeping that even ke but keeping in perspective know it’s not as bad as you think it is and uh if it is bad I like the way Tom Watson dealt with that and uh someone asked him said what happens if you’ve had a bad round you think well all all the bad shots are out I’ll play really good the next and then he said okay he said well what happens if you play really good round I think I’m on a roll I’m gonna play really and the guy says That’s not logical. Well, it ain’t logical for us to think the other way either. We’ll think I play good. Oh gosh, I’ve used it all up. I played bad, now I lost it. So, if you’re going to be illogical, at least be illogical on the right side. And that’ll carry you a long way. I mean, the game is so middle. This game is if you keep your mind positive, it’s huge in this game. Yeah. Um, yeah. Yeah. So, I I called uh so last year Jim Furb was the captain of the President’s Cup team I was on and uh I called him probably 2016 or so and I was struggling with uh a part of my game and he was very nice to give me a few minutes on the phone and he said um a big part of what I do is managing that one day of the tournament that I don’t feel very good as is usually there’s one day and said for example I’ve learned that like on a Friday say I’m feeling really uncomfortable. Sometimes I’ll be I have a nine iron in my hands and I’ll aim 40 feet away from a flag. So he said there’s nothing wrong in that. You know said he said a lot of times I’ll shoot a 73 and then I’ll go to the range Friday. I’ll find my game. Saturday I’ll go out I’ll find it on the range Friday afternoon. I’ll shoot 64 and they’ll say tell me about this amazing round that got you in the tournament. He’s saying actually Friday was the round because I had nothing Friday. So I think like being okay with being a little more conservative when you’re not as comfortable. Um, it’s okay to not go for a par five if you have a brewering hand and you can get there, you know. I think just just uh managing your own game and not comparing it, I think is just something that’s really upbeat. If I might add to what these two greats have said to you and taught you from my experiences with the both of them and with some of the best PGA Tour golfers I get to watch every week is that Larry is the best Larry Me there is and Russell Henley is the best Russell Henley there that he is. They’re not trying to be somebody else. They’re being true to exactly who they are. And he said this to me the other day. He goes, “Look, I’m not going to drive the thing as far as Rory, but if I play my game, we’re going to compete.” Yes. And so I want to charge you guys to as you grow in this game and as all the fanfare and the NIL deals and television and all this stuff comes along, just be you. Be true to yourself. If you do that, you’ll be the best you that you can be. And if you do that, then you are a success. So, thank you for your attention. Please, can we give these two guys a warm round of thanks kids of Green Island to Mr. Mayor for coming out to Senovas for sponsoring this, Michael, all the folks, Truth Springs, all you. And then to the parents, thank you for bringing your kids out. And to all you golfs, have a great week. Go and shine. Remember, there will be better days, but shine nonetheless.
