Smylie is joined by special guest Michael La Sasso to talk the upcoming Walker Cup and the biggest details to know ahead of the event this year.
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Grid. Hang in there. It is smiley Kaufman for 61. Wow, I’m Smiley Kaufman, and this is the smiley show. It is officially Walker Cup week, and as such, I’m happy to warmly welcome you to the Smiley Show. I’m Charlie Hume. At time of you listening or watching this, I’m out in the West Coast, hopefully bopping around Cypress Point. He’s Smiley Kaufman, and we have a special Walker Cup related treat for you today. We have one of the Walker Cuppers on the United States of America side, Michael Sasso on the show. Michael is a senior at Ole Miss. He is the 2025 NCAA Division one individual national champion, played for tour events this past summer, in addition to the US Open at Oakmont, and debuted at number three in the first class of 2026. PGA tour U rankings. Smiley, we’ve recorded this conversation already, and I’ll tell you what, man, I was bummed. Just be a fly on the wall for this because I loved every moment of this. You guys are ribbing me and teasing me behind the scenes on all the Carolina football stuff, but I just thought Michael was was a really great hang and a guy that I can’t wait to see play this week in Cypress Point. It definitely was fun to to talk to a player who’s had so much success at the college level this year at Ole Miss, and talking about his transfer from NC state, how he ended up at Ole Miss, I thought was a fun part of the conversation. And then just to see what he’s been able to accomplish at Ole Miss, how he’s done it, you know, the degree in which he’s worked, I think was fascinating hearing some of the the drills that they do at Ole Miss and how it’s kind of taken his game to the next level, but definitely have seen just some incredible play from him, even on the PGA tour this summer a little bit. And I think a player that potentially could be one of the stars for this United States Walker Cup team, and just trying to get him to read a book really before he got out there, but I don’t think he’s going to do it. You were selling that book hard. I mean, I mean, the very least an audio book. The match is a fantastic book. I mean, come on, this book is so good. I’m gonna I’m gonna I’m gonna pack it for the plane. I’ve read it a couple times, but I. Although who am I kidding? I’m flying 5.5 hours with my two children who are almost three and almost one. There’s no chance I’m reading a page of a book. No, you can definitely throw on the the not earbuds. What are they called? AirPods. But I can’t even do that because we figured out that I have a janky versions. I don’t even have the noise canceling versions. Okay, well, it’s still works, I guess. I guess it’s the works. Yeah, maybe. Maybe that’s what I’ll do. I’ll listen to it on audiobook. Here’s what I’m really intrigued to find out is Cypress Point is pants year round. So I don’t know. We’re going to see the the 4 or 5 inch inseams that he’s accustomed to wearing out there. Yeah, that’s the only awkward part of the interview, is trying to ask a grown man about his shorts and and the length of of them. So that was the only, like, dismount I wish I could have back. So y’all laugh with me when we get there. Yeah. I mean, listen, it’s it’s he’s iconic for that reason. It’s kind of like, you know, you go do you how much thigh do you like to show. Just get off. Get off the rails. It’s tough to tiptoe around that one. But man, it was a fun conversation. A really cool way to get to know a rising star in the in the game of golf and a guy who’s going to, you know, hopefully pop up on a lot of PGA tour leaderboards in the future. So let’s get right to it. Smiley here is smiley alongside Michael Losasso previewing Walker Cup. Go Tigers go Tigers. All right guys welcome back. We got an awesome guest here today on the Smiley Show. The NCAA individual champion. We’re talking Michael Losasso from Ole Miss Michael you’re of course you’re from North Carolina. Went to NC state transferred to Ole Miss. Where exactly do your allegiances fall when Saturday comes. Like was it a quick and easy transition to being an Ole Miss rebel? Or we still have a little bit of NC State Wolfpack in our blood? No, I’m I’m a diehard Ole Miss fan right now. Oh he’s there. He’s all the way there. Didn’t take long. No I bought into the culture here pretty good I ever since I’ve been down here I absolutely love it. ACC compared to SEC. You know the tailgating is a little different. The football games atmospheres are a little bit more rowdy. And yeah, I’ve I’ve absolutely fell in love with it since I’ve been here. So gosh that’s amazing. Well what part of North Carolina are you from? Michael I’m from Raleigh. Raleigh, North Carolina. Okay, cool. So growing up junior golf, just talk quickly about your development because of course you’re an incredible player now. But was it always that way in junior golf? Were you always a player who excelled at the highest level? No. You know, I was kind of more of a a late blossoming for sure. So I really started to get into golf like my seventh grade year, actually. I remember I chose baseball over golf. They’re both spring sports in North Carolina, so I actually chose baseball over golf in sixth grade. Finally decided to choose golf over baseball. Seventh grade. Started playing a bunch. I actually got introduced by a couple guys. There was this game on the weekends at this golf course called Wildwood Green. A lot of a lot of good guys actually played out of there. Carter Jenkins, who’s a UNC guy, Ryan Girard, who’s actually out there for a little bit, Zach Seabolt was another big one. And so I actually played under them a little bit. That’s kind of how I first got into golf and just like loved picking their brains. You know, I was I was kind of the kid that went out there right after school and was probably walking holes until dark. And that’s kind of how I really started to get into it. And then from there, kind of never really played the Ajga stuff until my junior year. There was always they actually just discontinued the tournament. But there was a tournament always out at 12 Oaks, which is probably 25 minutes away from where I lived. And it was kind of a cheat code. Like for some reason there was a lot of points, but there normally wasn’t a ton of like really good kids that played. So you could kind of like finesse the system. If you finished well, you could get a lot of points, so I finished. I never won an ajga, but I, I think I came in second like 5 or 6 times, but I came in second there twice. And then that got me into the invitational that summer and then my junior year that summer, and the first one was at Streamsong Streamsong. That’s right. For the team. TaylorMade. Yeah. And then kind of was just like a big top 30 guy. Like never could really crack the top ten. But I’d never come outside of like 35th and then kind of like into my senior year, that’s when I started to play like better, for sure. And I think I actually racked up like a few top fives in invitationals. And then from there kind of transitioned into college. Man, it’s funny because there’s like a couple guys, you know, I’m like an avid TikTok watcher. Been I’ve been trying to have somebody take my phone and delete TikTok for about five years now because I, I frankly need to delete it because I just enjoy watching it about every evening. And there’s probably like 3 or 4 players that have just randomly popped up younger golfers. And this kind of goes all the way back, even to like when Min Woo Lee was like getting rolling in the whole YouTube TikTok thing. And I’m like, okay, I recognize that Min Woo guy. And and all of a sudden he’s, you know, playing on the PGA tour. Another player like Brad Daugherty was another guy that was popping up. And I would probably say, you’re the last of this bunch. Michael Sasso was definitely a player that always was popping up on what your coaches TikTok or like, what’s it called on your golf game? Chase Duncan All right, so I love the way Chase Duncan teaches the golf swing. I just think it’s the way he gets the club. You know guys get the club vertical and shallow and all of his guys seem to smash it. All of them seem to hit fades. And one day you pop up there and I’m like, okay, this guy’s got a great golf swing. It’s super unique, but this guy’s quadzilla. What’s this guy’s got some just monster quads. Shout out to whoever your your weightlifting coach is because my goodness, baseball could have like that was definitely an avenue for you. I can definitely tell just from an athleticism standpoint. But does that do a lot of people say that like, hey man, I recognize you from just like social media stuff. Definitely back in junior golf days and maybe a little bit when I went to NC state. And then more recently, it’s kind of been solidified by more of like play instead of like kind of like having that venue from Chase. But actually, I think kind of the early exposure to that was very beneficial. You know, I kind of had a whirlwind of a summer and for me, like, I feel like you always kind of get those comments like on Instagram. People like always love to just kind of chirp. And so for me, like, I just I’ve kind of been used to like I’m able to block it out a little bit. You know, it’s a little different exposed early to it. Exactly. It’s a little different when you get in person. You get the crowds that are starting to get rowdy in the afternoon. Like then they start chirping like it’s definitely a different environment than online, but from like the online scene, like kind of the early exposure. You know, I, I always kind of used to get made fun of because he would post some heinous stuff back in the day, which, you know, it’s funny because we sit there and laugh about it now. Alabama, Florida State years, Georgia open with Clemson and then Oregon and LSU and les Miles open with Oregon and smacked him around. Alabama knocked around USC in Wisconsin and Vojtech for years. The SEC fears nobody. Stop it. I love the SEC. Put them on. By the way, if you just had an SEC College Football Playoff, it would be absolutely wonderful. How about that up there? SEC backers, sports grids, college football today. So the Mets went through a rough stretch where they were terrible. But you know they win the series versus the Mariners. They’re kind of turning things around just a little bit like the offense is be there. Been there. You said they’re in a playoff race. You know it’s tough to say like oh they need to win. It’s like trying to trust teams that in different sports at the end of the season. But the hitters are hitting right now. Leaning to the Mets. Lean into the Phillies. These teams have something to play for and they’re cooking right now. Pro baseball today only on sports grid. I think what you saw last year is it’s tough to say, oh, it’s projectable, but I do think it’s something that when you’re taking shots here, you’re looking for a bye week coverage wide receiver on your roster or a guy that has upside, who’s young enough to grow into more of a role. I think the development of Bo Nix was stunningly good last year. If we can build on that again this year, I think Marvin Mims is a really good selection as the 57th wide receiver off the board. Fantasy sports today only on sports grid. What does he do after he hits the home run? He walks over to the fan and he pats him on the back and gives him a high five. This is the same fan that’s been going after him for the entire game. Dave Roberts after the game saying, hey, look, every once in a while it’s kind of funny to see Shohei, who’s got this wonderful personality that we almost never see. It was great to see him do that with the fans. Newswire only on Sports grid. Every time he used to post me, like every time my video would just go nuclear. Yeah, like it was trying to just funny every time he would post like for some reason it got like a good target audience. And right here you’re looking at him. I’m in the audience, I’m in the algorithm. It’s been it’s been fed to me many times. The the really good golf swing, the butter fades. And also the short shorts seem to be a thing. How long is how long are these shorts been? Thighs out or I guess sun’s out. No it’s not. Sun’s out. Thighs out. What is it? It’s when the sky’s out. Thighs out. Maybe I don’t know, maybe. I think I’ve heard that one before. But Charlie might have to help me out with that one, I don’t know. Yeah, so it’s kind of like a funny story. So I got into weightlifting pretty heavily in high school, so I was my friend group in high school. I wasn’t really friends with a bunch of kids, actually, at my high school, but I was friends with the guys that either just graduated college and were playing like mini tour stuff, or they were guys that were kind of like about to phase into professional golf. So I was always kind of rolling with a with an older crowd. And most of the guys that I worked out with were like big into golf stuff, but they also just like, liked working out like it was a good like process and routine to get into. And like, I just absolutely got hooked on it. All right, what about Max’s help? Help us out here. So we’ve had Jake Knapp on. And so currently if you can beat his his peaks or his maxes then you would move up our our leaderboard for for Max, I don’t think I don’t think I’m going to touch him because I did a lot of volume back in the day. Okay. It wasn’t really a ton of maxes, but I actually started to get pretty strong last winter at Ole Miss. I kind of went right back down the rabbit hole because I started to realize, like, I would shed weight like pretty easily in the summertime. So I’d try and build it up come offseason. And sometimes the weather can get nasty in Oxford, Mississippi, so you don’t really want to go outside much. And so last winter I actually turned into a meathead pretty hard. And it was just trying to gain like a ton of weight. Started taking like supplements for it that were all NCAA regulated, some some creatine. You just got to watch out. We got two players OD’d on creatine on the first team I know. Yeah, I saw that actually. And I was kind of surprised. I was like, man, I swear I’ve taken a lot before, but I haven’t got that that reaction. But yeah, like I was, I was doing like pink Himalayan salt, creatine. Like I pretty much was like just blowing up because my water retention was so high from like pretty much just trying to absorb all that water. So I could therefore like lift stronger weights just because, like the more you weigh and in theory like, the more you’ll be able to to move. And so I got into it pretty hard. I, I would probably bet a lot of money that Jake Knapp’s got a good bit of strength on me, but visually, I mean, he’s a, he’s I don’t know, I saw him actually. This this I have to go off air, but I don’t know, I saw him in the locker room at 3 a.m. and I was like, Holy, this guy’s. Yeah. And then he had a hell of a week that week, too, which I kind of thought was hilarious. Yes. But yeah, I saw him. I saw him there on Tuesday and I was like, Holy, this guy is massive. I used to be a bouncer, man. He would have been a great bouncer at Oxford, Mississippi. And which which y’all’s main bar there called, I can’t remember. I’ve been to it a big one’s library. Another big one. Another big one is Funky’s, the owner of that huge in the golf. And so we perfect. Nicest guy ever. Perfect. It’s a good setup. Wait, so how did you end up at Ole Miss and how many years were you at NC state? So I was at NC state for a year. So I actually on a little backtrack to NC state, I committed there. I think it was like my ninth grade or 10th grade summer, but when I was committed at the time, not many people knew this. Caleb Surratt was also committed there to play golf. And so at the time we had we had a few good recruits like we had we had a kid from Austria who just actually won, Max Steinlechner. He’s kind of he’s played well over in the European circuit. And then we had a kid who finished inside the top 25 last year on PGA tour. You, Nick Matthews, who played at NC state, good kid, All-American. And then Caleb and I were supposed to come in and go to school together. And so like, he was a big part of like one of the reasons why I committed there. And then he ended up leaving, went to Tennessee and then went to live, which is kind of like he’s kind of been bouncing around a ton ever since, like junior golf days. Yeah. So I ended up sticking it out, went there for a year, and it was fine. Like the actual experience, I learned a lot. Like it was like, I do have to quote, like there was a good bit of maturity that I got from NC state, you know, just kind of being a freshman on campus, like you learn a lot. You know, it’s like, you know, your actual decency of like, life has to be, like, improved, like your mom’s not going to do your laundry. You have to learn like, all right. Sure, sure. There’s a lot of growing up that first year. Yeah. You don’t want a pile of clothes in your bedroom. And so, like, kind of learned a lot. Just kind of like maturity and kind of was able to learn that. And then after my freshman year, I think we had four kids that were like our top five either graduated or just kind of like ran out of eligibility from like their Covid years. And so it would it would have been like a pretty big rebuilding year the next year. And so I was like, you know, why don’t I go get like a new, fresh scene, try somewhere else. And so I was good friends with we had three guys that were in the sophomore class at Ole Miss at the time. So it was Tom Fisher, Cameron Tankersley and Patton Samuels. So I was best friends with a bunch of them in junior golf, just kind of like through playing that Dustin Johnson and a few of those invitationals for Ajga. But I did not know the head coach at all. So that was kind of like the only like trigger that I had. And so I went into the portal and they were like, hey, listen, like we’ll fly you out pretty much immediately. And I was like, all right, like, this is perfect. So I went down for a visit first thing, no students were on campus. Mind you, this was summertime, so there was no student body. And I went down there and, you know, I kind of met the coach. They had Cameron, and I think Tom Fisher both showed up on campus just to kind of show me around. And I remember I went back into our hotel room and I told my dad I was like, I think I could move down here tomorrow and be perfectly happy. Like, I was like, there’s something about Oxford. I was like, this is great. You know? The head coach was great, and at the time the assistant coach was Austin, Cody and Cody. He was my age, by the way. Austin Cody, incredible, incredible junior golfer, good college player. But like he was unbeatable in junior golf. Yeah. He always kind of used to mention that actually a little bit like unbeatable. Yeah I heard he was very, very good. Went to Duke right. Yep. And so I pretty much got recruited by him. And then after two days after committing, we got on like this big zoom call with everybody on the team. And he said he was taking the job at Vanderbilt. And I was like, oh my goodness, like this. Like, that could be brutal, you know, because I kind of like Cody. Everybody said, yeah, everybody said good things about him. And then we had this like new guy, brand new in the coaching coming from Washington. You know, I kind of had no clue what to expect. Here’s a tip. Some machines and online games have higher average payouts than others. Want to try to maximize your odds while do some research online to find games which have the highest RTP or return to player percentage. So now go get lucky. See you in Las Vegas. Let’s get lucky. Devon Ham. You know, catfishes are really tricky. I’m not saying he’s going to be on the PUP list or anything like that, but it is something to monitor. And he has a small running back. And I think chasing last season is just a problem. I can’t take him over Derrick Henry at the end of the first round. I think it’s crazy. And Ollie Gordon’s a player we talked about. Here’s the preseason stats for Ollie Gordon that 26 attempts, 126 rushing yards, 4.8 yards per carry and a touchdown. Fantasy only on sports grid. Otani was -20,000, I believe. Tom, we were talking last week. He’s down to a -4000. I still think it’s fun. I don’t know who say, oh, now’s the time to bet the -4000 here and win some money. Schwarber’s at 12 to 1 price. Machado 10 to 1. Soto 200 to 1. It’s still going to be Ohtani’s award here. They’re not playing great baseball for the Dodgers. But I do find it funny. Like what is the difference between -20,000 and -4000? Who knows. He’s got that much money to play anyway. Pro baseball today only on sports grid. Arch Manning is a 7 to 1 price to win it. You take a look at Cade Klubnik here for Clemson. He’s a 9 to 1 price Nussmeier. Then we see Jeremiah Smith. He ain’t a quarterback Joe. He’s a wide receiver. Love those wide receivers. Yeah Ryan Williams is another one from Alabama Jeremiah Smith and and Ryan Williams will battle it out for best wide receiver potentially leading their teams to a College football playoff. Sports grids college football today. You know he came in. He caddied for me at the US am at Cherry Hills. Yep we ended up making it to match play. And like I absolutely like fell in love with like everything that he taught me. And then ever since like we’ve hit the ground running and he’s been like, I, we always joke around. I call him my lifeline a good bit. What’s his name? Emerson Newsome. Emerson Newsome. Okay, so I was covering the US am. And that’s that’s the first time I’ve seen your name in a while. It popped up because I was the analyst that week in the booth, and I saw what Saso popped up. I was like, I know that guy from TikTok. Yeah, there he is. He’s playing good this week, I can’t remember. I feel like he won. Maybe a match or two. Is that right? No, I was so funny story. I lost to Jacob Miletsky in the round of 64 and I was five. I was five up after nine holes, ended up losing. I do remember you being up. That’s. Maybe that’s what’s triggering my head here. Yeah, I lost on the. I lost on the 18th hole. He made a yeah. He made like a bomb and like clawed it back. Cherry Hills was pretty fun. Yeah. Cherry Hill was awesome. That was probably my favorite USM venue that we’ve done. I thought that was like, the most fair out of all the ones that we’ve played so far. It was a great final with Shipley and Nick Dunlap. So that was a yeah, definitely a really good one. Also, the a lot of the players just played really well, like the top guys. So we had an awesome, awesome week in Cherry Hills. Obviously amazing. But yeah, I want to go back to heading into the senior year because you talked about the lifting and putting that strength on. And when I’ve seen your golf swing, definitely could tell you hit it a long ways. I’m not sure what your ball speed and clubhead speed, how far you fly it, but I know it’s far. It just looks like it has to be. But talking to one of your teammates who I’ve. I’ve known his family for a long time, played at LSU, transferred over to Ole Miss talking about Cohen Trolio, who had a very nice year this past year at Ole Miss, and he was telling me he’s like, I don’t know the specific stat, but he thinks it’s a right around this, he said last year, like inside of ten feet, which I didn’t know you guys in college had like in depth stats. We didn’t really have that when we were in school. But he said inside of like ten feet, you were batting around like 85% is, is is was that is that always been a strength of yours? Have you worked on it specifically to, you know, to be somebody who’s very good at rolling the rock. Yeah. So I so I was always like a pretty good putter inside of ten feet. I didn’t really make much outside of 20ft. And it was kind of funny like, so my assistant coach does a lot of short game work. So he has a few guys that he works with that are on Korn Ferry. And so all these guys like you go see they go work with like Joe Mayo or Derek. Like this summer I was kind of introduced to like all of the short game coaches that are out there every week for these guys. And I was like, Holy cow. Like, I’ve got my assistant coach at school that I’ll call him out from his office, like for maybe 20 minutes every Monday and Friday to come, like make sure my, like, stuff’s not getting out of whack. But I’ve kind of used Emerson as, like, my short game coach over the last probably two years since I’ve been at Ole Miss. And I work a lot with him on putting and like kind of the junior year. And I actually had it pretty rolling, pretty good at the end of sophomore year. Like I started to make a lot more putts outside of ten feet, but I always, always was a pretty solid putter inside of ten feet. And then kind of like being around him, like my speed control kind of got better. I didn’t three putt nearly as much, and so I kind of just like tightened it up a good bit. And I think like just kind of having the exposure of having a guy that actually is knowledgeable in what he does and is like, really ready to help you, like, learn about it a good bit because he, he dives pretty big into stats, which I was never really exposed to in junior golf or at NC state. And so like he made us start entering every round of qualifying we had in a decade. Every event we had like stroke play event we had in a decade. So every round. So we kind of would he has a good idea of what each guy’s really good at and then what guys struggle with. And so you can see, like if you’re actually starting to trend a good bit, like during the season or like if your weaknesses are still kind of like struggling. And so I know there’s some kids on our team, like get overly obsessed with them and like they really start like riding them out. But to me, like it’s kind of just like a friendly reminder, like, okay, if I’m improving, let’s see if it actually gets better in competition. Right? Or if like, I still need to work on it. So what about the short game area that you guys have? Or maybe it’s called a short course that you guys go out and practice on? I’ve been told by Coen that that either Chris or maybe Emerson, they set up drills or not, maybe not drills, but challenges or competitive challenges for you guys. Is it like a pass fail type of stuff that you’re doing out there or you competing against one another? What exactly is it? Yeah, it’s it’s pretty cutthroat. So so we have a short course. So it’s ten greens and a few of them are replicas of greens from like big golf courses. So we have one from Shoal. That’s my home course. Yeah. So we have one from Shoal Creek, which do you know what hole I think it’s like 13. I think they always said 13. So we have that. What’s it what’s it look like or is it a there’s a ridge. So it’s kind of like this like almost like L yeah. And there’s a bunker short. Right. And then there’s a fall off. That’s that’s yeah. That’s the old. Yeah. The NFL’s heaviest player in history. Cut by Tampa. His name was Desmond Watson. Did you see any like the his highlights were walking up and down the field as opposed to doing Gassers. And that’s how he was supposed to lose weight. Joe how about that. Or they they really tried to get the guy. I mean, they really did. They put a lot of energy and effort trying to get this guy underweight and athletic enough to make a difference, but it just couldn’t do it. The early line only on sports grid. That number last year was a loser comfortably. Jeremiah Smith in the regular season had 934 receiving yards, ten regular season touchdowns. He had a phenomenal and I mean a phenomenal College football Playoff despite only having one catch for three yards against Texas. That is how good he was in those other three games. Game time decisions only on sports grid. Netflix is back in a big way. They get home run derby. What else is in store? Yeah Craig, we told you they had a great shot at it. And if they do now the deal is not done yet because there’s some last minute things. However, if the deal is done, Netflix has Home Run Derby, Peacock and NBC gets Sunday Night Baseball and they also get the Sunday afternoon package that Peacock originally had three years ago, and Roku’s had the last two years newswire only on Sports Grid. Basically their whole entire year is going to come down to the Ohio State game. I would be surprised if they were to lose any game leading up to that. So them to go undefeated is 12 to 1 in the regular season. That’s a regular season play. So I think that’s possible to go 12 and oh at 12 to 1 to win the Big Ten championship I think is a 9 to 1 play is a good number to take because if they’re in the game, we can hedge off of it in game Live only on Sports Grid. We have a replica of 16 at Augusta, the par three. So that’s like the one that’s furthest from our putting and chipping green. Amazing. And then. Aaron Hills maybe is another one. I could not tell you what hole that is from, but so what exactly is this stuff. Is it just. And so so normally when we go out there so we have kind of two forms of practice. So we have one is called a ladder. And then the second one is called like a stuffed game. So the stuff’s game is every guy has three balls. And so they’ll set up like this routing of a par three. But you never putt. So it’s like wedge control. So it’s it’s anywhere from 60 to 140 yards. And you hit three balls. You normally you’re on a team. Last year we had nine guys. So we did three teams of three. And so you would do each guy would hit three balls, but they would take a different time hitting. And if you got your wedge shot within the flagstick like that was deemed one point. And then always like the third ball was with the money balls called. So if you get it inside the flagstick, then you get three points. But then every time you miss a green with a wedge, it’s minus a point. So like and if you miss a money ball it’s minus three points. So like then you’re kind of like learning. Like do I be a little bit more conservative and not take a minus three? Or do you still try and get aggressive and get and try and get as many points. So that’s that’s one that we do when we go to a golf course that’s a little easier and it’s a lot more wedges like we’ll practice. That’ll be one form of practice for us that we do a bunch of. And then the other one, which is probably what Cohen’s talking about. It’s called a ladder. And so we have ten greens and it’s normally on each green there’s an up and down and then there’s like a lag putt. And so to move on to the next shot you have to complete it. So if it’s an up and down you have to get the ball up and down. And then you move to the lag putt and you have to two putt. And if you three putt, then you go back to the shot before. And so and so it kind of and sometimes like our coaches will make it. So it’s like it’s pretty brutal. But like the hard part about it is like each green for us is spaced out. Like there’s a few greens that’s probably like 130 yard walk from one green to the other. And so if you’ve got like a six footer and you got to either get it up and down or like you hit a putt like six feet behind, you’ve got to make the six footer. If you miss it, you got to walk 130 yards back, but you don’t want to do but you don’t want to do it by any means. And then for us, like the way that it gets competitive, there’s a pretty good there’s a pretty good pizza joint, probably like five minutes from the golf course. And so normally the top 2 to 3 finishers from each practice get like a free pizza. Oh, and so like that’s enough for me to get motivated. Exactly. So everybody and we have like a big whiteboard that kind of has like not stats from like the semester, but like if you finish top five in an event, you get a point. If you finish top ten, you get a point. If you win, you get a point. If you have like a GPA above 3.2 for like each grade checkup, you get a point. If you have like shots gained, putting during a round of qualifying or during an event, you get a point. So there’s a bunch of like little points. And at the end of the semester, you get to pick out two things from the Nike website and the coaches will buy. So like if you get a win at practice, you get a point. And so there’s a lot of like little incentives where it gets like very competitive. And you definitely don’t want to lose if it’s free pizza or like a free piece of, well, what have you bought? What have you, what have you gotten from the site? I’m assuming that you’ve that you’ve gotten to the top of the standings here. Yeah. So actually, funny enough, I got a pair of weightlifting shoes, like pretty legit ones from the website. Guys. Legit. Man. Guy got me. This is it’s a it’s a personality now. No, you’re these are things that you’re ordering for. Yeah. That was funny. We do off of like the Nike game day which is like what the school uses. So the selection is pretty limited. Gotcha. But like I think I got that I got a decent amount of pair of shoes from that website. That’s kind of like what I go to because is Lane Kiffin a big golfer out? Do you ever see him out there? We do. I play a bunch actually. We’ve got like we’ve got a linebacker that loves golf. He actually played football at UNC and then transferred to Ole Miss. And so I always see him when like an athlete dining. And so I always bust his chops about like his handicap and stuff like that. And his name is Diego. Diego pounds I’m sure Charlie probably has heard of him. It’s just not surprising. It’s it’s not surprising to see the best players from North Carolina transfer somewhere else. That’s that’s actually not surprising. I wait for his mic to turn back on. There we go I knew it. That was sorry. I’ve. I’ve been giving him way too hard of a time about the Tar Heels heading into this season, and it’s a shame I feel bad how hard I’ve been on him, but I think this whole North Carolina joining the SEC talk is, is definitely taking it out of me a little bit too much. Yeah. And so I used to I actually played a lot with the baseball guys down here. Like there’s a couple pitchers that love playing golf. Yeah. And so like if we got kind of like a lighter week and you know, you want to just go play like a casual round of golf without like trying to get like overly too competitive. Like I’ll go play with them. And normally it’s like pretty laid back and you just get to go play good golf. And and this is what Cohen was great at at LSU. He made friends with the baseball team. It sounds like he’s probably made friends with the baseball team in Ole Miss. And you guys are just repping the baseball caps, you know? Hey, come out here, I’ll give you some. I’ll give you some pro bees and you give us give us some good Ole Miss baseball hats. Is that kind of the trade? Cohen Cohen loves that fitted hat. I mean, I don’t know if you’ve seen the pictures of him, but he looks he looks funny. And we love him. We love him for that. So he also told me that you’re possibly the best three wood player in tournament history. But he said that outside of tournament golf, it’s you’ve turned into like a four handicap with the three wood. Can you explain why it’s so good in tournament play? And then outside you’re like, how do I what do I do? How do I hit this club? I don’t know, like I think that’s like also one of my strengths is kind of going for par fives and two. And so sometimes like when we’re at home, like I try and get a little too creative with the shot. So that’s kind of when it starts to go a little haywire. But in tournament, you know, like you’re, you’re kind of focusing on like what’s the number you’re trying to hit? Where are you trying to miss it? If you’re going for a par five. And so I like in tournament like you’re a little bit more zoned in and like you have like a little bit more of an idea of like where you’re trying to hit it. And so in tournament, like I, I will say like I do hit that three wood pretty damn good. What do you carry that three wood. Oh so I play it pretty hot. That’s kind of like by design. And so like when I tag a good one, it’s probably flying 285 to 90 with probably like 74 ball speed. Sure. So that’s kind of like like if there’s ever a time where you need to turn it right to left, can you, can you move it that way? Oh yeah, I can. That’s the one. Like normally I’m pretty left to right. And so if there’s ever a tee ball where it’s like, you know, you kind of got like a tight starting line down the left, like that one’s like an easy go to grab it from the bag and go play that one. All right. So this whole season looking at your results obviously trending heading into the national championship you’d had an incredible season. Just talk about that week. And then of course you know winning the individual title. Of course you know coming up just short with the team title, which I know would have been incredible to have both. But how much has your life changed from that week for you? And, and of course, achieving, you know, what everybody wants to do when they get into college golf, which is to win the national champion as an individual. Yeah. It’s so that that week was crazy. I can’t even, like start to even go on. Like what was happening. I had so much adrenaline running through me, probably even like that second and third night where like it was like it was one of those things where like, you didn’t really sleep much, but then you knew, like as soon as you got to the golf course, like as soon as you got into a good rhythm, you could just kind of groove it out. So just kind of just trying not to think about it as much as possible. You know, you’re kind of just sitting there trying to enjoy it with the friends, because that was the first time I’ve ever made it to nationals as a team. We missed it by a shot the year before, and then we missed at regionals at NC state. So that was my first time even going to the national championship. So he kind of knew what to expect, but not really like for us. Like the golf course is like brand new. Nobody’s ever really seen it. Yeah. Before. And you know, that’s the first time like, you really got a camera crew on you for college golf. So like the guys are you got the camera crew running around behind you. Yeah. Trying to film. So kind of like was the first time. And it was one of those things where it just felt it was pretty comfortable. You know, you got the team there, everybody’s rooting for you. And it was one of those things where I knew we were close to getting into match play. Like, I had our assistant coach walking with us and I knew we were close, but I didn’t know how close it really was, and so I wasn’t really as focused on the individual title as it was of like, all right, let’s try and get the team in the match play. And then I knew, started to know, like with four holes to play, like I was in the lead. First time on a casino floor and feeling a little overwhelmed. Well, here’s a tip lots of machines have a free demo mode you can try for practice, so give those slots a spin in practice mode before you start putting down some real cash. Now you’ll get lucky. See you in Las Vegas. Let’s get lucky. Hopefully starting in 2027, where I think the schedule could just completely get blown up, which would be so exciting for the fans, the players. So there’s there’s interesting things that I’ve heard that that would be like one of the first things that I could that could say that people are, are talking about and that things could really get get changed up a little bit. The Smiley Show, only on Sports Grid. It’s good news, bad news, but it’s the same problem when they, you know, created this problem come draft day, right. We all knew you got too many quarterbacks. It’s as simple as that. Unless one guy absolutely stinks then then you still have too many quarterbacks because you still got Deshaun Watson who’s eligible to come off the IR this season. If they really want to go down that road again in game live only on Sports Grid, this is the moment every fan waits for. The countdown is over. The road to kick off has begun. Play is here to stay. I’m not going to name names. Kevin. From win totals to player props, from division races to MVP debates, we’ve got eyes on every camp and data feeding 24 over seven, breaking down every angle across the league, every pick, every edge, every line that matters. Sports grid. Your road to kick off starts now. It was kind of one of those things where it’s like you got so much riding, like, you know, you don’t want to mess up the individual and you don’t want to mess up like the team. But you know, you’re when you’re right there in the moment and the fire, like, I wasn’t really nervous at all, you know, like you’re so like, I don’t know. You’re just so in the moment that, like, it kind of just like your muscle memory kind of takes over and you just play. And so for me, like, that’s kind of what happened. And then we didn’t even really have time to celebrate. You know, we we had match play like the next morning. Yeah. How do you reset. How do you even reset after that? How did you sleep. How do you get ready for the next day? How many texts did you have? Oh, I can’t even tell you. I thought my phone was going to blow up on that shuttle. Going back to the golf course, but it was like any anybody texts you that was just like out of the blue that you’re like, whoa, this person just texted me. Yeah, I had a bunch of people that I didn’t think were going to text me that I did, which is pretty cool to see anybody of note. I mean, I had like a couple just like not random people, but it was just kind of funny, like Jaxson Dart, our quarterback. You know, I know he texted me like another random one was Danny Duncan, which is like kind of like just one of the more like random things that I’ve that I’ve seen before. Like I wasn’t really, like, aware that he played golf, but he said he was starting to get into it. So, you know, I kind of thought that was pretty funny. Besides that. Like, it was just like a lot of people from my hometown, like, that was like the big thing. That’s a bunch of that. And then, yeah, I remember we literally got takeout Italian from the restaurant. We got like a few nights ago. And I mean, I think I maybe had four bites of my meal and like, I couldn’t even I couldn’t even eat because I remember we we had Arizona State the next morning and it was like we were like the first group out as well. And so we were like, first off, because we were I think we were the eighth seed. So we were like, first off, had to go play. And I remember I literally didn’t even I don’t even think I ate breakfast that morning either. Like it was one of those things where I just had so much adrenaline pumping, like I had my phone turned off, and I’m pretty sure I laid in bed tossing and turning for like an hour, just like, yeah, I was like, holy. Like what just happened? Which that was pretty cool. Yeah, actually, it was kind of a funny story. So we played that morning against Arizona State. I played really good that morning, just kind of like it was pretty easy. And I like golf. Just felt really easy that morning. Blitzed it. We had like this huge wave of events with we had our kid on our team, Tom Fisher. I don’t know if you saw any of the highlights, maybe, but it was electric like he was playing. Was he the one that like, chipped in with like from like 40 yards or something? That kid did. Michael chipped in from like 40 yards. And Tom had like a 20 footer to keep the season alive. He made it. And then he, like, turns around and stares at him. And it was like, I mean, it was like, that’s awesome. It was it was probably the funniest thing. Like everybody was laughing so hard. And so then we were like, at that point we were like emotionally drained. And then we had to go out and play right in the afternoon against Oklahoma State, and I got paired against stout. And I remember like literally, I think it was on the sixth hole, like I started taking smelling salts to just try and like wake myself back up because, like, I, I’m pretty much rolling on like zero hours of sleep. We just had like the longest elite eight, I think, like we I think we did. We had a couple kids go into extra holes, like didn’t know if we were going to squeak it out, squeaked it out, went played Oklahoma State and like by that time I was exhausted. And I just got like Preston Stout absolutely waxed me like it wasn’t even close, which was pretty funny. All right, guys, but yeah, you got it. I’ll go get him. Yeah, pretty much like I was just trying to cheerlead at that point, and it was close to like. I mean, we had two matches square on 16 and I ended up losing both of them. We had two points on the board. It was close. I remember watching it that evening and yeah, I mean, it just had to be just an incredible week before seeing the individual champion and always fun to making match play. I had the opportunity to play in match play at Prairie Dunes. I think it was one of the first times they did the match play deal was on TV and we lost in the semis, and I remember just being wiped in that afternoon. Similar deal. Oh yeah, it’s just that that I feel like is the longest day of golf. Yeah. Like you’re you’re done playing four rounds of stroke play and then you go play 36 holes. And I mean you’re just emotionally wiped. Physically wiped, you know, and then you’re just like, where do we even go from here? Hey, tell me this. So does the Walker Cup. If you if you win the NCAA individual title, is that an automatic bid to getting into the Walker Cup, or did you get into the Walker Cup based off of just general resume merit all that? I don’t think it I don’t think it is. It was more of like at that time I was an auto bid because I was I think I was third in the world at that point when they did that first like automatic qualifiers. So I don’t think that was an auto. But I mean, I kind of figured, like, I, I did that practice squad over the winter time, the winter before and kind of was talking with him through that and then had like a pretty good spring, like I won twice. I was able to kind of just to get some good points my way and then kind of ended up getting that automatic bid, which is pretty nice. All right. So how how do you try to not look ahead when you think about competing on a Walker Cup team? Every amateur wants to make that team, just like all these pros right now are trying to make this Ryder Cup, especially where it’s being played. Dude. Cypress Point Walker Cup at home I mean in September the weather’s going to be perfect is I mean you’re going to be walking literally on clouds. It’s going to be incredible. How how pumped are you. Yeah. So we so my first time out on property was like three days before the US am started. So we went out there early and it was myself, the coach, the captain, Nathan and then Ben James. And so it was us three. And then Reese Moseley, who’s like helps run the player development for USGA. And we went out there and played twice. And it was like probably one of the craziest experiences of golf I’ve ever like I’ve ever had like that, that place, you know, our assistant coach always talked about as like literally it felt like a religious experience for him. Like when he first went out there and, you know, like we’ve I’ve been fortunate enough to play a very a lot of very good golf courses as my time being like a golfer, especially in college, you kind of get some doors unlocked that you would never get. And Cypress Point like, it was unbelievable. And so the first day we actually went out there and I birdied 15 and 16 like back to back and had no clue that that was like that’s like a big deal. And our caddie like lost his mind. And he was like yeah you’re you’re a part of like the two two club. And I was like, I have like literally no clue what that was. But that was pretty funny. And then Ben James actually the next day did the same thing. Oh he did. Yeah. And so when we went into the clubhouse, they were like, you know, only 25 people have like, ever done it. It’s like it’s it’s a very small crowd. He’s like, you get your name like engraved on the or like there’s a, a thing for the members in the locker room where like when the members do it, they get like their name engraved in it. But I know when we’re going back out in September, like they said, they were giving us ball markers and like, a cool little thing to remember it. This is the moment every fan waits for the countdowns over the road to kick off has begun. Play is here to stay. I’m not going to name names. Kevin. From win totals to player props, from division races to MVP debates, we’ve got eyes on every camp and data feeding 24 seven, breaking down every angle across the league, every pick, every edge, every line that matters. Sports grid your road to kickoff starts now. The Pirates used that thing, Joe. It’s like once every 15 years, we’ll hope for the perfect storm with lightning in a bottle. Then we’ll try to rebuild it again. Enough, man. In this day and age, with the prospects that you can certainly have by stinking every year and top right talent like you see in Paul Skenes. It’s just a shame. And it gets on my nerves. Like for me being a Phillies fan, I think it’s hilarious. Like, I never want Pittsburgh to be good. Why not? Because it’s a rivalry. I just the team you have to worry about in the playoffs and your team can make the playoffs. The early line only on sports grid. There’s no way you’re going to have a team with 63 wins and two other teams with 55, and probably another two that are between 49 and 52. So there’s got to be some pullback a little bit right under 62.5 wins for the Oklahoma City Thunder. Betting above the rim only on sports grid. The sharpest football contest show in the land. The Las Vegas football contest show focuses on circus sports millions circus survivor and the Westgate Super Contest, handicapping the games and releasing our contest picks every week of the season with two former Super contest winners, Brady Cannon and James Salinas, a former NFL player Mike Pritchard, and over $1 million in contest prize money won. Combined, the Las Vegas football contest show will have you prepared this season like none other. And maybe even like an envelope or something. They hand you and it’s like, hey you, you made a two at 15 and 16. Here’s your membership for Cypress Point. That would even be better, right? Like, how would you throw us that little bone on the way out? You and Ben James becoming a member at Cypress for making a couple twos? Yeah, no, that was that experience. Like just going out there being the first time, like 15, 16 birdying them both and then, like, kind of just like the weather we had out there was perfect. Like the first day. So good. Cloudy like absolutely nothing. The second day we had that marine layer come in. And so you were able to kind of see it. And it was like I thought the marine layer honestly made it cooler. Like, you know, I think it’s always pretty cool when, you know, you start to have the clouds roll in and it kind of gives like this eerie, like, mysterious kind of vibe to the golf course. And I thought it was like unbelievable. So yeah, it’s amazing. And if you haven’t, I don’t know if you’re much of a book reader, I typically am not. But this was one of my favorite books I’ve ever read. It’s called The Match, and it’s about a match that was played out at Cypress Point with Ben Hogan, Byron Nelson, Ken Venturi and gosh, I can’t remember the other guy’s name, but he was an incredible amateur. But if you played the golf course, it’s so fun to read because it takes you hole by hole in this match and you can actually listen to like on, on Spotify if he ever just wanted to listen to it. But it just gets you excited. Like it’ll get you excited about playing at this golf course where you know some of the greatest players ever play the game, have teed it up. Yeah, yeah, I actually I was told about that book through you got it. You gotta read it before you go. It’s just going to get you more excited or listen to it. I know how I’m not much of a reader. I know the young generation. We gotta we gotta consume our content a little different ways. All right, so as we close this thing up, one of the things I recently just saw is that you have signed with the sports guys. So is it breezy golf, is that right? Yeah. And the there’s a picture of the togas on. You’re gonna have to like, walk me through. Was this, like, joining a frat? Like, what exactly happened here? Yeah. So I just went out there. I actually got back this morning, but I went down to Jupiter for, like, we went down there for two days, and it was kind of like, meet the guys, you know, shoot some content. And so they always do like pretty funny ads that are like always on their Instagram to like, promote, like their different fall drops and stuff to come out. And so the one that they thought for me was like, you know, we’re taking your time out of the school year. Which school hasn’t even started yet for us. But like the idea was, you know, we’re taking your time out of the year, so they’re going to do like a let’s bring you back to school like ad campaign. And so they like they kind of featured it like of Ole Miss. And so I know it’s coming out in like a probably like a month month and a half. But like you’ll get a good laugh out of it. Like it’s definitely funny. Like it was kind of like an initiation into their like frat, I guess. And like, I mean, I was I got like a swirly done by one of the guys that’s like going on video. It was like they were absolutely great. Like it was the funniest thing of all time, which like, you know, that’s kind of something that I enjoy, you know, kind of growing up being like an athlete in other sports, like it’s kind of nice having a connection to something that’s just a little bit different and like, hilarious. And those guys like, when I was actually brought that offer, I was like, this is something that, you know, you can’t turn down, which is funny. So they’re they’re hilarious. It was the whole experience was great. Oh gosh. I mean, FP joining up in his fraternity, it’s hard to turn down that bid right. Yeah. Guy’s a legend. Yeah. And actually we we did a YouTube match too. And I mean, they waxed me. I mean, I think they shot like 9 or 10 under and they just for the first time I think I’ve ever, you know, I’ve watched a few of their videos, but that was the first time it almost seemed like the lights came on, which is like just kind of brutal. But it was fun. Well, yeah, maybe just I feel like momentum gets going with those boys. You gotta watch out the they can just definitely start, start turning the tides a little bit and make it make it hard on you youngsters. So yeah that was interesting man. That’s that’s awesome. Does does old Bob does he have any hope his his golf game. But my guy no Bob I mean I’m not I’m not going to talk too much because they did end up beating me. But man Bob looked rough out there that day. And I actually wrote in the corner, there is no hope. He was telling me too. He’s like, I don’t even want to tell you the amount of time and amount of money that I’ve spent on lessons. He’s like, I still some of the golf shots, you see that guy hit and you’re just like, there’s no way that that’s real, but is starting like a YouTube channel something that, like, you would want to do in your in your golf career. You know, I’ve thought about it and ever since I actually signed with Johnny, oh, they have a media guy that’s been like pushing me to kind of like start shoving content out because I was actually never the guy to post content. Like Chase Duncan was always the guy to post his TikToks, and I actually, it was funny, like I never posted a video but had like a pretty decent following. And so the guy at the guy at Johnny L was like, all right. Like, you know, like, let’s try and like make this a brand. And so like, I started posting and like kind of started to get into the woodworks a little bit on it, but it’s a lot of work. Like it definitely takes up a good amount of time for it to be quality and like, as much as I would love to kind of like start a YouTube and I think that would be hilarious. Like, I think I would need to hire like an editor and stuff like that, because I’m not too gifted when it comes to the editing editing process.
