What Happens When a Pro Becomes a Caddy? | AmateurGolf.com Podcast

What happens when a professional golfer steps away from the spotlight and trades the tee box for the caddy bib? In this episode, Blair McKiethan—former tour player turned content creator at @Formulagolf and current caddy for Corey Shaun on the DP World Tour—opens up about his unconventional pivot within the golf world.

From the pressures of playing pro golf to the lessons learned carrying clubs for another, Blair shares:

➡️ Why he took a break from competitive play

➡️ What it’s really like being inside the ropes as a caddy

➡️ How YouTube and AmateurGolf.comcom became his new fairway

➡️ The surprising things he’s learned watching the game from the bag

Whether you’re a weekend golfer, an aspiring tour player, or just someone curious about the game behind the scenes, this episode offers a rare, thoughtful look at the evolving life of a modern golfer.

⛳️ Tune in now and get inside the mind of a player-turned-caddy.

Well, my name is Blair McKithan. Uh, I am a professional golfer who has been playing tournament golf all over the world for the last five years. But, uh, taking a little bit of a backseat to Caddy for my friend this year named Cory Shan out on the DP World Tour. And when I’m not doing that, I’m making YouTube videos for Pete and amgolf.com. Today’s episode is brought to you by Cobra Golf, a leader in golf innovation. Let’s talk about their groundbreaking DS Adapt line of drivers, fairways, and hybrids. Featuring the revolutionary Future Fit 33 technology, this system offers 33 unique loft and lie settings, allowing golfers to adjust loft and lie independently by plus or minus 2°. This unprecedented adjustability lets you fine-tune your ball flight for optimal launch speed and control. Cobra’s commitment to innovation doesn’t even stop there. They’ve introduced a 3D tour irons fully 3D printed from stainless steel. This cuttingedge manufacturing process creates intricate lattice structures within the club head, reducing weight by 33%. The saved weight is redistributed to the low center of gravity and increase forgiveness, resulting in irons that offer the feel of a player’s blade with the stability of a game improvement iron. Experience Cobra’s DS Adapt clubs with future fit 33 technology and 3D printed iron to take your game to the next level. Visit cobraolf.com to learn more. I’m going to introduce Blair McKithan. He does video and other club reviews for amitergolf.com, but I’ve never quite figured out where you are these days, Blair. I don’t even know where you are right now. So, welcome to the amitergolf.com podcast. Blair McKithan. And why don’t we lead off with where the heck in the world are you? Well, right now I’m currently in Osaka, Japan. Okay. And Blair, you are an amazing player. We have a video of you shooting 66 at Olympic Club uh sight unseen. You are one of the original uh guys on YouTube teaching the game. You love everything about golf. You’re pro golfer. what what switched you over these days u to cattying and and tell me about who you’re catting for. What what tour are you on right now? So for um first off what switched it over is I’ve been playing on the Alps tour the last two years. Um it is basically Europe’s version of PJ Tour Canada or Latin America. So, uh, their third level tour out there and I’ve never gotten off the tour and, um, and it’s been obviously an expensive venture, as you can imagine, traveling around and, uh, playing for virtually no money. Not that I haven’t enjoyed it. I’ve loved every second of it. I’ve got to see some incredible places all over the planet. I met a lot of my best friends out there. But my good friend Cory Shawn, as as many in the golf world might have known towards the end of last year, was just crushing it all over the place uh in all the Q schools. Uh he had a five shot lead in the first round of PJ Tour uh Q school in the final stage. Uh he shot 61 in the opening round when the scoring average was like 73. So, you know, we’ve been pretty close and it’s been kind of floated about the me cattying for him that, you know, since he got his European tour card before he got his uh corn freight tour card and then uh he didn’t make the PJ tour, he missed it by two shots. And I’m sure if he got the PJ tour, he would have hired an actual caddy, but uh for D World Tour, you know, he wanted somebody to uh who’s been around that area and which is what I have been doing the last five years. and I felt like I would get better at golf catting for him and watching and playing with really high level players and I would also make more money than I ever would playing on the Alp store. So, it’s kind of a best of both worlds. And thankfully, I still have my Alps Tour card. Uh, so I’m able to play in a couple events. I actually have one in two weeks in Austria. Um, so it’s kind of mixing between the both. My clubs are not with me right now. I had a tournament in Austria about three weeks ago and I left my clubs there at a golf course. Um, I have a lot of friends out there. So, when I come back, I’m going to pick up my clubs, play in the tournament, and then we go right to the next DP World event. Three straight weeks in a row. You are an Energizer, Bunny. I don’t think you understand what uh what jet lag is. You You do, but I don’t think you you understand it. I That actually is a perfect segue. I was going to ask you a couple of questions about uh Give me just a little bit more info on Corey. Uh where did he he played at San Diego State or or USD? Tell me about at UCLA. UCLA. Okay. And you um and he became friends around uh around the last few years. Yeah. I think maybe 2019 or so he was playing out in China. Um got introduced through a mutual friend of mine who is now the first assistant coach out at Northwestern. His name’s Sham Chen. He’s a really close friend of mine. And so they put both played in China together and then that’s kind of how we met and we’ve been playing golf, you know, playing dice rolls and gambling with each other ever since. So I’ve seen a lot of fun really flow to Oh, thank you. Why don’t you Why don’t you say that again? I’m I’m sorry. Go ahead. Oh, I’m just saying I’ve seen his game kind of progress from the the ups and downs to the extremely high level that it’s at now. And um and I felt like I wanted to be a part of that. you know, he won’t ever admit it, but uh I think he can win a tournament this year, and I I kind of really want to be a part of that. So, now I’m starting to become part of the fan club here. I I want to know more frequently where you are. I don’t want to be guessing and uh so we’ll we’ll have to do that because um we we’ve got is I was just up at Goatill Park today in in Oceanside where uh you know, Xander has played and there’s the friendships that are formed. This this San Diego is one of the hot beds of golf and it’s not just Phil Mickelson and Charlie Hoffman. I mean there are just players after players that have come for here but from here but uh but Xander uh you know clearly achieving a lot of success out there and as a player you know what it takes and I was going to ask you and you kind of led into this. you feel like personally you bond with him but also you see something in his game that you’ve told me you really think he can go out and not only win but ex exceed and excel out there. Absolutely. Uh I I you know I have a lot of really good uh golfer friends obviously guys playing in Cornray tours you know play PJ tour events and obviously I play a lot of golf with them when I’m home. Uh and I’m not playing with you. playing with other with other pros and we’re uh we’re gambling and having a good time and um you know I can compete with these guys which is fun but at this but you you do always know who’s really got it and um and my friends do a lot of my friends do have it but I wouldn’t have dropped everything I was doing like a full season of tournament golf like I would have played this year to caddy for anybody else. I just uh you just kind of know um when someone’s on the cusp of something really great and uh and if I could help him get to that level then that’s uh that was kind of what I really wanted to be a part of. I felt like I could help him and yeah now we’re out here and and there you are Osaka Japan right? Yeah. Well though that being said I’m I’m alone here in Japan. So we were we spent the last two weeks in China. Um, so we had a tournament in Shanghai, the Volvo China Championship, and um, so it’s really interesting, we’re going to get into some details about like how the categories work on the DP World Tour because they’ve kind of shifted and changed the last two years. And this year specifically has really really hurt the the Q school guys. like um I hope this isn’t a long-winded thing, but if you’d like to hear about it, I can tell you like how this year has gone in regards to our category, which has been something insane and which is it leads into why I’m here in Osaka and not at home for this off week. Yeah, I want to hear about it. And I also think maybe just before you segue into it, if you could tell the audience and me really a little bit about getting on the DP World Tour, which is you we used to call the European tour, and I wasn’t even familiar. I know they go a lot of places, but clearly there’s a winter in most of Europe, so they have to find places to play to be a year- round tour. So, why don’t you tell me a little bit about that before you segue into this category, but we’d love to hear about how that works cuz a lot of people listening might wonder is that a path for them? U like the young man from Sacramento that that uh played on just about every tour in the world and and uh John Catelyn, he’s like an example that has he’s played every tour and John Catelyn’s a special breed. He uh he actually probably doesn’t remember this, but when I first got on Alps tour, uh he helped me kind of figure out my visa to get into Europe during uh during COVID time when we weren’t allowed to go. So, it was a he’s also friends with my friend Sam Chan, who was a mutual friend to everybody in the world, it seems like. But, uh anyways, yeah. So, the the DP World Tour, um obviously now it’s a world tour. I think it’s more so playing all over the world than it was in the past. uh you know in the winter time I think the European tour could play a bunch of events in southern Spain and be just fine but instead we go to uh so the season started in Australia which I did not caddy for and uh which Cory went down there made made a cut and had a nice start and then we went to Maitius where we finished top 10 and then after Maitius oh boy where did it go after that um went yeah after Maitius ends up going to I think Dubai uh for the Rolex series events. So, you didn’t get into that one. And then there’s the Ross Alka, which is also in um the United Arab Emirates about an hour and a half north of Dubai. And then after that, you go to this all the Middle Eastern swings. So it kind of start kicked off in Australia, shifts to a couple events I think in South Africa and then it goes to the Middle Eastern swings and then so it goes to Bahrain then Qatar and then we get to um Kenya uh Nairobi and then after that where uh it’s kind of hard to keep track of all this stuff to be honest. Yeah. Then there’s two events in South Africa. So a lot of the the season starts all over the world and not in Europe. And I think if you um are someone who wants to see the the the world and play golf, then this is the tour for you. But if you’re someone who’s not, you know, not good at handling jet lag and doesn’t want to do long travel days, then it’ll be very very tough. So I think it takes a special kind of person to for an American to play this tour, I think. And Corey is one of those guys who’s able to go all over the place, have jet lag, and still perform. Wow. Yeah. So you um take Corey very seriously as your he’s your accounting for him. He’s your player. Yeah. Right. So my question then is okay, you’ve got this player. Are you responsible for his clubs? Is he responsible for his clubs? What happened when his clubs don’t arrive? Tell us some logistical stories before we get into that, you know, the real nitty-gritty of how these categories work. So he does have responsibility of his club. So he obviously travels with them and and I and uh you know so I don’t think uh I don’t think any golfer as a golfer would personally that I know of would would trust anybody with their clubs like I’ll always be it it would be weird not to have them you know uh so he uh he actually did get his clubs lost because um in a South Africa event right after Kenya because he came he has status on cornfair tour also. So we got done with Kenya and then he flew all the way to Argentina because we didn’t think we were going to get into these South African events and it it was very obvious that we weren’t going to get into them. So I went home to San Diego. Cory goes Argentina to play in the corner event in Argentina and then go to Chile right afterwards which is insane to me you know like Kenya is a is a long way from Argentina you know and um so anyways he went down there plays in the event and then finds out last second that he got into the South Africa event. And in our category, we don’t really have the luxury of picking and choosing. If you’re in, you got to go. So, he skipped the event in Chile when he was ready to go there for corn trade and flew back to South Africa. And since it was still short notice, his clubs didn’t make it. So, he had to play with a with a rental set the first round. Uh I think he shot like four or five over or something with some because he has five degrees flat on his iron. So, like getting some random set is just not going to work. but he tried his best and then got his clubs the next day, shot a couple under, missed a cut, then flew all the way back to the United States. So like this was all within a week and a half, two week stretch. It’s uh unbelievable stuff. So I didn’t make it to that South African event because that last second ticket would have been really really expensive and so it’s cheaper just to get a local caddy. But u that just gives you an example like if you lose your clubs, you’re pretty pretty screwed out here and there’s nothing there to play with. It’s not like you’re playing I know the clubs are fairly um nice golf clubs but they’re not it’s not Pebble Beach where you could rent a full set of clubs and even then how are you going to find five degrees flat? That is you know for people that don’t know what that means most of our listeners probably do but that is an extreme uh that move his his hands are low relative to somebody that might hold him high and uh I don’t know how you would adjust to that really obviously affected him. I think if we if that happened in like in a tournament that was um that was like a full-blown DP World event in Europe somewhere where they have like tour vans, they could build something up really fast. And I know that the Callaway guys at in South Africa did the best they could. And what he said was actually the thing that got him struggling the most was his putter because he’s a great putter and uh his putter has a very specific feel to it and something different was I imagine be really tough. So he said that he struggled with putting more so than even the ball striking from the rental set. Okay. So there the these are DP World Tour and they uh it’s that’s you know it’s a major tour obviously there’s there’s tour vans there for the most part right unless something’s very remote. I always wondered how lived golf you know when it first started how did people know the the manufacturers know whether they were going to send a tour van out to places especially with a limited field in some cases. And so why why don’t you expound on that a little bit because you’re playing Callaway now and you you like the line uh how how are they uh internationally you know it’s a very international company Callaway is they’re in every give you the dets on that really well um so it it’s kind of varied from country to country so far so for instance when we were in Dubai they had a whole area full of Callaway guys tidalist uh tailor had shoes and and golf balls and Scotty Camerons and stuff and and the reps are there. They travel around with the tour, right? But like so and like where there’s like bigger hubs like Dubai is that you get more stuff like they actually have like a designated spot for you to be. Same with Qatar, there’s like a little room where all the cowboy guys hang out and they bend your clubs. But then you go to Kenya and it’s just one guy who traveled with the golf balls, the gloves, some hats for the players, and that’s just all they have. And and you know, so you’re not you’re not get you’re not you’re not going to go to the putting green arena in Kenya and be able to pick out your Callaway, your Odyssey putter that day. But when you’re in Bahrain, where it’s close to a hub, uh they come in with their bags full of putters and they have their their equipment to bend and and reshaft things. But uh from what I saw, like in Kenya, that did not happen. I’m pretty sure the South African events are probably something maybe similar depending on where it is. I think the one that Cory played in was a mix between the Sunshine Tour and the DP World Tour was a really small uh first event. They might not have been there for that one and that’s why he couldn’t get like the clubs uh completely dialed. But if that like I said if this happens in starting in Belgium, not after our next tournament, the one following is when the tour vans are actually there. So all the European events, you’ll get the tour vans driving from Belgium to the Netherlands to Austria and then they have multiple reps and all the equipment and tech that you need. So it’s just a little bit I know it’s a little bit more difficult or a lot more difficult logistically for these companies to do uh to to go to these like smaller events in uh in like Africa and and where it’s really far away from their center base. Yeah. And how about uh just making a tea time transportation, planes, trains, and automobiles. I’m not looking for horror stories, but just in the travel, you know, give me some logistical stuff that happens. And then I also want you to talk to me a little bit about some of the characters. Let’s get to let’s we’ll save the travel stuff for later, but I’ve really been thinking about the characters because you’ve described them to me oneon-one and told me about some of the accents and some of the language barriers. So, what’s it like for an American and an American caddy playing in even Europe in in you know where where you’re playing with uh when you play on the Alps tour or when somebody’s playing in a country where um you really and and and tell me about some of these characters because you’ve described their swings. Some of them are homegrown and they’re out there playing pro golf. Absolutely. Yeah. I mean uh there there’s a lot of characters on the DP World Tour. I caddyy for Cory in the Bahamas earlier this year on the cornfairy tour and there’s a different vibe between Cornferry Tour and DP World Tour. I think people on the DP World Tour are more relaxed and comfortable with where they are in their golf career whereas like Cornfair is a lot of people are really stressed because you only have these handful of events to make something happen, right? Like DP Roth has 42 tournaments and if you keep your card, you’ve making a nice living out if you live in Europe obviously. So you see a lot of people who joke around a lot and a lot of groups of guys like the Spanish guys who who joke and and talk a lot of crap and a lot more than smoke cigarettes than I thought that I would have seen like a lot of them and I’m like yeah I never would have thought this guy smoke cigarettes and they’re just you know they’re on the practice range just ripping and you just don’t you just don’t see that on TV right so I mean they like we were in Bahrain and it was uh getting ready to start our first round and it was like cold and almost a little bit rainy rainy, which is really surprising. And um and it and but like the first tea time is at 6:30 and it’s like 6:15 and the sun isn’t even out yet. And the guy one of the guys who had the first tea time we it started raining. We went into like where the Callaway box was or little building and it’s it’s like me, uh Corey, Marcel Seam, uh Patrick Reed, and a couple other guys. And then like Patrick goes, “Do you think we’re supposed to be playing? It’s like still dark.” And then Marshall seems like he’s German, you know? He’s like, “Pardon my language.” you like I’m not effing playing out here. I can’t even see anything. He’s smoking a cigarette. I’m not playing. You can’t you can’t you can’t get me to play. This is impossible. And then sure enough, you know, 6:30 comes and they’re on the first team. So like like little things like that were pretty funny. Yeah, I guess. And you’re these are bigname players uh and that you’re there with and they’re facing the same problems. Like how do they get a 6:30 tea time? They they just got put in that group. group. You would think they’d get a little premium treatment, but they didn’t. We got we actually Frain was was probably my favorite tournament of the year so far. Obviously, Cory played decent. He finished like 30th, but on our final round, we had two sums and it was just me, Cory, Patrick Reed, and his caddy. So, we uh we got to play with Patrick Reed 101 for four and a half, five hours and uh you know, got to see short game in person, which was beyond impressive. Uh and Cory played well. He actually ended up beating him by three and you know internally we were pretty happy about that because uh but he was surprisingly really really nice. Um really friendly to us, happy to be around another American out there you know and um yeah we all got along we got along really well and I think that’s why the that’s why Cory played really well but a prime example of something that’s funny that I think people don’t think about. This is also back in the beginning of Bahrain, but we went there from Dubai. And then we’re on this, they shuttle you, you know, those places, it’s recommended obviously that you get the the the tournament host um hotel. So that everything’s taken care for you. You don’t have to rent a car or anything. So we’re all in this bus and we’re driving and it’s like 10 o’clock at night and Bahrain is I think Bahrain was incredible. We were in the their capital called Monama. really beautiful city, but we got into some traffic jam and then there’s this car that and there’s this full of all TP World Tour players, so top 200 players in the world and we’re all, you know, just just leaving from Sunday to from from the Dubai and we’re all in this car and then there’s this this this car like cuts our bus off and like tries to squeeze in front of us and then our bus driver honks the horn and then they start yelling at each other and he gets out and he’s like, you know, what are you doing? What are you doing? I they’re singing in Arabic, you know, so like it’s it sounds so they look like they were so mad and they both got out of their car and all everyone in this this tour van are just like is this actually happening and I’m laughing about it. Thankfully nothing came to blows but I was like this is the only kind of thing that would there’s not a tour in the world where other than the PJ tour where something like this you can avoid it you know like it was just a really funny feeling to know that there’s top 200 players in the world you know some millionaires in this in this bus and we’re sitting here watching this bus driver almost get in a fight for road rage you know and it’s just kind of like right no sec not not a high level of security and it’s it’s a I know it’s it’s a it’s a relative atively safe country, but every country is less safe than your home country because you’re not from there and you don’t know the customs and you don’t know what to do in some cases. So, it sounds like uh it’s a lot more luxurious than it used to be. Uh my friend Lawrence Donigan, who is a a very u well I I won’t begin to talk about all his golf writing accolades, but he was a golf writer for uh the Guardian in London, and he got embedded on the D what was called just the European tour. He became a caddy. Uh gosh, I can’t Ross um Drummond, I think was the name of the player. And the guy agreed to have him out on the tour the whole year, you know, as an even though he was an unskilled caddy and just a you know, basically a everyday golfer. And the the book he wrote, u it’s called Maybe It Should have been a threeon is an awesome read. You would enjoy it. Actually, I’m going to I’m going to get you a copy. But uh why I say that is because his in his book the uh the luxury wasn’t there at all. And there were some of the same places that you’re going to but when he arrived there were uh they were sleeping in in they had a caravan and things like that on their own. Yeah. They there was a whole pecking order of caddies and there were several occasions where there were they were afraid of the the weapons that were drawn. Now when you go to these airports it’s different. I know just going into into Paris uh into London the security and and everything is really right in your face and Oh yeah. Where where have you where have you seen that the most when when you’ve been traveling? Well, I have seen it obviously in Paris, you know, the guys walking around with the big guns. Same with uh same with Rome. Um but I’d say the most at least like the most pain of security for me personally is is anything involving Turkey. Like you go through like three different securities. So you go security when you get into the airport. You go security once you check in and then you go depending on where you’re flying. Usually if you’re leaving Turkey, you go through security one more time and uh to get onto the gate or of the plane from the gate. And so I fly into Turkey a lot. It is a great airport. Like the international airport is beautiful, but it’s just it’s like an easy centralized hub to get from Asia to Europe obviously because it’s right in the middle. But I do also often really dread uh my travel days through through I have one coming up literally uh in two days though. Um all I have to worry about is the Orlando airport and all the Disney World uh you know the the tourists uh and and the shuttle, the dreaded Orlando shuttle. So, I’m I’m heading I’m heading there to watch my uh my son with Lawson’s graduation who who you know, my son. Uh uh back to uh back to this though, you know, really uh thinking about some of the things that you’re doing and catting uh out there. Get, you know, give me some more um something round situational. You’re on the cut line. Uh maybe you have to hit a shot over water and is there has there been any theatrics so far? like something that’s happened that either you didn’t think he had the shot or you told him he had the shot and he really did. Something like that. Oh, you know, it’s as a caddy, it’s really funny because like and also as like a professional golfer with different skill sets, like there’s shots that I think I can hit under these situations when I’m watching him that like I would ne I would always go for this shot or whatever and then like he would not, you know, he plays more conservative because he’s he hits it straighter and he’s much better at putting than I am. So, but like and it’s always like just like a small thing, but as a caddy, it kind of eats you up inside. But like we were in brain on like our ninth hole and he was 234 to this back pin, 212 to the front and he’s in the rough. But like if you if you hit it down this like shoe area, uh it was a perfect hybrid for him. Like I was like you just need to get this thing anywhere remotely close in the air and anywhere straight and if it lands 180 it’s going to roll up to the green, you know? And like he would didn’t feel like he wanted to do it, but I was like if even in decade you’re like decade golf. I’m like you have to go for this green. you know, the lie is not bad, just like trust or whatever. And so I kind of really talked him into it because I was like, there’s no way you’re thinking about laying up from 212 to the front of the green, you know, and then he hits it, misses the the area to the left, gets in the bunker, then like dumps it in the bunker, leaves it in the trap, and then uh and I think I don’t know if he got up and down or not, but anyways, like afterwards he say like, “Yeah, I really felt like I should have laid up there. It’s just kind of not my game to be that aggressive.” And I was like, you know, it eats you up the rest of the day, you know, like because you’re like, we’re just causing a stroke. Thankfully, obviously, he made the cut that week. But but um but we’ve had a caddy forum on three missed cuts. We just missed the cut in Haiko in China. We missed it by two. And um and like he was hitting it really nice, like more so than at any tournament I’ve seen. It was just it was playing 7650. Uh ball wasn’t rolling. We had a lot of sticks in. He just just didn’t quite do it. you know, he missed the cut by two. It’s not like he played terrible, but it’s hard as a caddy when your player in those moments because you I don’t know what to say. Um like do I try to pump him up like you got this dude or you know, do you does he not want to hear that? Do you want to be you need to be quiet? But if you’re quiet, does that mean he’s thinks that like I think he’s playing bad? You know, like those little like mental games as a caddy are difficult. Um cuz like I know what I would like and I’m still in the learning process of trying to get him in the right headsp space as much as I can. Uh but he’s also a very independent player and can do that stuff himself. But um it just so trying to find that right balance is the is probably the most difficult part about catting. I’m learning more about like what how to club him and what kind of shots to get him into to to make sure that he’s comfortable with which is usually on the more conservative route. Um but but you know the highs and the lows is trying to manage emotionally that for both of us is the is the tricky bit. Well and and I that’s the book I talk to you about and any caddy I’ve ever spoken to as a amateur golfer myself when I take a caddy at Bandon Dunes. We try to talk to each other like what do you need? Do you want to I always you know I have a few just a few little quirks. I don’t want to read on a bogey putt. It’s just my deal. I’ll just go it alone. Right. because it probably doesn’t mean anything. Yeah. You know, and that that’s the thing too, like a lot of people think that Catty’s just be reading their greens and stuff for their players that uh like I he didn’t ask me for one read in Haiko where we were just that like not once. Uh but then you know when we were in Bahrain where the greens were a little trickier like he was asking me a lot and um so but with him like I said he’s he’s he likes to take ownership of his own game which is my job obviously a lot easier but like um like I will read the putt and I I when I told him basically right when I first started ever catting for him I said I’ll read the putt with you but I’ll never like give you the information unless you ask me because I don’t ever want to say like I think it’s right edge and then he’s like what it’s a ball out, you know, and then then he’s confused and you know h human eyeballs are different, right? So like we actually even train together for a little bit like to try to see where we’re reading things. So like when we were in the Bahamas it was grainy and so if I thought a ball I was like okay is the ball out and then I’d aim or something and then he’d be like yeah that’s aimed like half a ball out. So like I I see right lines a little higher and left lines a little lower and vice versa. So like we kind of both mix it together. So when I see a right edge putt, then I’m like, “Okay, it’s half a ball out or or one ball out, I’ll be like, “Okay, it’s a half a ball out because that’s what I think he will see.” You know what I mean? So, um, you’re kind of like adjusting your language to how they view the putt. Um, but again, he didn’t he he’ll ask me if he needs it and then I’ll but I’m always checking so I know what I’m looking at and so the information is in my brain when it happens. Well, you’re you’re not cattying for him because you’re you’re not capable of catting, but I think you’re an amazing player and I don’t want to go through this podcast and not talk about your own skills, your own success, because there are caddies that do both, but I wonder, you know, first of all, start it off by are there other caddies that you know that are playing tours? Because that’s a big juggling act, but you’re doing it right now. Like I said, you’re the Energizer Bunny, but and beyond that, um, you tell me a little bit about what some of your success on the Alps tour. You had a pretty good run in the Audi circuit over in Germany. Uh, so tell me something your own game. Yeah. Um, I don’t know any other players. Uh, I I know there’s a the guy who cattelago Portillo, Spanish guy. He played on the Alps tour I think my first year out there. Uh he’s not playing anymore obviously, but like he’s I he’s someone I know who’s like a really good player. Uh but I don’t know anybody who’s still like playing trying to play any tournament golf out there. They’re kind of uh they’re kind of just focused on their guy. Um for me, in my case, like I don’t have the luxury of going back and forth like Corey does, and I also wouldn’t want to just because of jet lag and stuff, but like so I I’m going to have weeks off in Europe, you know what I mean? So, like I might as well take advantage of the tour card that I have and go play. But I just recently played in the Audi circuit. It was my first tournament in 5 months. Um, I finished ninth which is really which was nice and solid. I was in the lead after two rounds and I was three back going in the last round and then just kind of struggled. Um, but like turned a nice profit which was really important especially figuring situation I’m in now. Um, so like yeah, I tried a 68 two two under 70 even par and then like three over. But I mean I played much better than I expected because I it’s not like I’ve been practicing. Obviously I’ve been out here uh you know traveling around taking months off of my game and then just go playing tournament golf and it’s still there. If anything, it’s better now after seeing what I’ve seen and how how the the high level tour players play. And uh you take that into Yeah. Yeah. Well, I’ve always felt that I’m going to interrupt you, but I’ve always felt that there was when you were out caddying uh even as a kid, I would caddy, you know, 14 years old, 16 years old, and all I was thinking about is I see something either in their swing or just, you know, the hole that I’m playing, and I I couldn’t wait to play after. Now, you do have a lot of energy at that age and and you’re you’re of an age that you’ve got a lot more energy than than me. And I think the other thing, Blair, is I I see that you absolutely love the game. Are the people you meet out there are they’re trying to make a living, but are they in love with the game as much as you are, or are you do you feel like you’re just a guy? Because I always felt Tiger loved golf. I mean, to take it to the top level. So, where where do you fall and where do the other players you meet fall? I actually think um I mean I love the game for a lot of different reasons, but I don’t have uh I don’t know if I have the drive that a lot of these guys out here have. Like they are full-blown like like I’ll get done playing golf in a tournament and I mean this might be why I you know I’m not in the big tour but like when I’m done with a tournament round and if I feel like you know if I’m any kind of tired I won’t hit balls because I’m like I’m not going to get any better hitting balls tired. I’ll just go home and go to sleep, you know. Or like if I get done with the tournament in Europe, I’ll be like, “Well, I’m gonna go take a day off and go walk around Rome for the day, you know, if I’m in like Italy, if Corey has a gets done with the tournament and there’s a day off, he is full-blown practicing like like there’s no and this is the same for most of the guys out there, not all of them. Some of them are much more field oriented. Other guys are just work work bees. Uh I don’t have that. So, I I think I wouldn’t say that I love the game any less. I’m just not as obsessed as they are. Like, they’re full-blown obsessed with with golf. Like, that’s why they’ve been trained to to play the way they’ve been training college and everywhere else. Yeah. Uh well, there must be u something on the horizon for you guys. I have a feeling. I just have a good feeling that things are going in the right direction. And I’m I’m just guessing from what you said there’s going to be a little less travel in the summer months when we start seeing the uh well the ma the European masters and the uh the course that you you love. Uh tell tell us about uh your your love affair with CRU Sierra in Switzerland. I can’t wait for that one man. And and what’s going to be cool is obviously so Cororey hasn’t been to many places in Europe. He’s been to Spain and he’s been to like London. Um, and everyone’s excited for the European thing. Like, you hear it all the time, like through all the players out on the tour, they always talk, I can’t wait to get back to Europe. Like, this so hard traveling all over the place. Like, it is really like actually proper difficult to to get to all these first events of the year. Like, it’s unbelievable. And so, you hear it all the time. And Cory’s getting more and more excited. We have the Turkish Airlines open next week uh in Turkey, which is, you know, you’re getting closer to Europe, right? And then um I I I have an outdoor event in Austria. And then we have the forgot what the term is called, but we go to Belgium. And then we go to um back to Austria in Salsburg. Beautiful golf course. It’s going to look really good on TV. Um company that uh I have a very close relationship out there is actually sponsoring it and putting that tournament on. Um and then we go to the Netherlands and like that’s those three travel tournaments are going to be so easy. like you just it’s going to take an hour to get to each place, you know, and not two days. Um, but Fronster Theater he’s really excited about the most because that’s the one probably the most recognizable on the tour that and Wentworth probably, right? Um, and his uh his girlfriend’s going to come. She’s never been there. So, like it it’s going to be a great week. Like I’ve already booked way in advance. It’s uh I think he can he’s going to play really well out there. I think that course suits him. It’s quirky. uh it’s not particularly long and it seems like it’s going to be really easy when you’re out there, but scores are never 20 under to win. It’s always like 13 under and I think he can do that. That course has he has a very very good chance on. But I think the most excited that I am personally for that I think he’s going to do best at is the Alfred Dunhill at uh St. Andrews, Carni, and um Kings Barnes. I think I think he’s going to play really well in a links course. his games suits the link style course the most I think. Okay. Well, I think that’s a good place to take it and wrap up. I would like to have a little info about this pecking order you talked about because it seems like there’s two things going on. First of all, he gets his card. Obviously, he’s got privileges, but you said that it’s changed a little bit. So, we’ll talk about that. And also, but you feel like you know he’s going to get into these events. So, I’m a little confused. Do you do you think he’s going to get in or do you know like he’s going to be definitely in those events? We know. So, um so the the the the DP World Tour has like added other categories for like former PGA Tour players and they added like 10 spots on the challenge tour from the last couple years. And so the Q school guys have category I believe it’s 18. Uh and so they add all these different categories and it’s pushing our category down. So Corey finished like 11th in in Q school. Then after having a top 10 in Maitius, he was the he was the number two. He reranked in the same category. You can’t rerank out like higher up in your category unless you win. So you’re always stuck in this category. And uh in the beginning of the year, all the tournaments were like 132, 124. They’re limited smaller fields. And so his category like even when he was number two on the money list like he’s an alternate and we were alternate so many times this year and um the first one was extra brutal the Ross Alka we went all the way to Dubai we were second alternate uh with a week to go and we never got in. So that that means you know I eat the cost as a caddy you know and then Corey eats his cost. So I’m now I’m losing money and it it’s just it’s just really difficult as a as a player to be in this alternate list. And that’s guy who’s number two on his category. So if he the person who finished 15th in Q school and you know didn’t play those Australia events that were right after Q school and like didn’t make the cut, they haven’t even had a start yet. Like I think they probably just started this last week. Like and so they’ve missed 13 tournaments already and they’re so far behind the eightball. like like an a crazy amount of points to keep your card now. Like it’s going to take a herculean effort. Um so yeah, so we we didn’t get into that one. We got into Bahrain as an alternate. We were first alternate. We’re on the range at like 6:30 in the morning and then there’s a guy next to us and he’s like, “Hey, you guys are these first alternates, right?” Like, “Yeah.” He’s like, “Oh, you’re in the field. My guy’s ankle hurt.” And so that’s how we got in and then he made the cut. And so that helps us on our category more, right? And then um so we got into uh Qar because of that and he missed the cut there. And then we got into Kenya where because it was like top 10 in his category got in and there’s 20 guys who have their card through Q school. So there’s still 10 guys who haven’t even got a start yet after getting through Q school full status. So, it’s really unfair, I think. And uh and there’s been a lot of complaints and the tour is I think going to have to really make an adjustment and I think they are um because it’s not fair for the Q school guys because we just went to China and our first event in Shanghai. We were second ultimate did not get in either. So, that’s another you know $2,000 gone more for him than me. And then we go to Haiko and missed the cut. And so, anyways, this leads to why I’m here in Osaka is because I needed I only have X amount of money. So flying home would have cost, you know, $900 from China and then I would have had to spend about 900 to fly to Turkey. So I would have been home for 4 days, jet lag, and then fly to Turkey. And so I looked all over the world to be like, “Okay, where can I go to just save as much money as possible?” I mean, and if I wanted to fly straight to Turkey, from there, I would have been a 53-hour travel day, overnight layovers in Kuwait, maybe one in Mongolia or something like all these crazy places that like on airlines you’ve never heard about, you know? And I was like, I’m not doing that. So, I found a flight to from Shanghai to here for 88 bucks, which was great. And then, uh, I got this hotel, a little small one, for about 250. And then I got a flight from Osaka to Istanbul for 370. And then a flight from Istanbul to Antillayia for 65 bucks. So, it’s going to be 25-hour travel. But so I go from here to Changdu, China, 6-hour layover, and then 10-hour flight to Istanbul. Then 2-hour layover, and then flight to Antalya. Then I got to rent the car and get our Airbnb, and we’re off to the next tournament just like that. Straight to the golf course. That is mindboggling, Blair. But it literally saved me $1,000. Saved me $1,000 doing this. And And I know you enjoy nice places and nice food, and I’m guessing you can find that there. Have some sushi. Have some hot tea for me. And uh sing some karaoke. You deserve it. I did. I did. Actually, I already I already did. I did that last night. It was fun. What’s your karaoke song? So, I like Country Roads from uh from John Denver is my go-to song. Did you get sing along from the crowd on that one? That’s a good one for the crowd to sing with you. They knew the song, but they weren’t really singing along. They were just kind of going, “Oh, boy. Come by.” Yeah. Well, they like your your your your American uh singing on on that. Yeah, it’s a it’s it’s one of the great great uh it loosens people up, you know. It’s just a great uh great door opener. Japan is a special place. I’ve been lucky enough to be here before. I’ve never been to Osaka, but I’ve been to Tokyo. And uh you know, this is considered the the the the country’s kitchens. This is where the the best food is in all of Japan. So, this was a great alternative. As much as I wanted to go home, I’m all right with avoiding a little bit of jet lag and $1,000 saved. So, this is where I’m at tomorrow. Yeah. You had said to me it was a good time for a podcast and your clear ride. Uh you’ve been wonderful to spend some some time uh on amatergolf.com. And what I’ what I’d like to do is um do this again as the season, you know, goes forward a little bit. And in the meantime, you know, one of my favorite things is to wake up in the morning when I know the time zones and that’s going to be when they start moving into Europe where you can figure out, okay, at, you know, 6:30 in the morning, Golf Channel or whatever, you’re watching live golf, especially like on a weekend before you sometimes before you go out and play yourself. So, I’ll be doing some of that. And I’ll be looking for Corey Shawn. Is it sh a n? Yes, it is. Yep. Yeah. I’m gonna I’m gonna be looking for Corey Sean and I know anybody that listened to this podcast is going to look for him as well and you’ll know Blair McKithan golfer and Caddy, thanks for being on the Amitter Golf Podcast. It was my pleasure, Pete. Thanks for having me.