Do NOT talk to @PadraigHarringtonOfficial’s golf ball ahead of a @PGATOURChampions event.
Dan Rapaport learned the hard way in this On The Bag, where he caddies for the 3x-major champion and all-time storyteller.
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Relative to the field, I’m the exact same now as I was back there. 100% you can put the wrong thing in somebody’s head. This is the champion store. Okay, you guys got the lasers. We’re going to get the laser out. Just point and shoot, baby. Yeah. We’re going to be here for 5 hours if I keep talking like this. Good. Do not talk to my golf club. You don’t like to be good. I don’t like you saying anything to my golf club. Do not take a driver off the tea and just shut your mouth all day. I got I’m joined by three-time major champion. You know, I used to say Podrick, but I feel like I when I went over to Ireland this summer, they said Prick. That’s because of the place you were in Ireland. You spent most of your time down the south in Kerry. They would say Poric, but it’s Podrick. Really? Well, my mother said Podrick, so I’m going by Podrick. Depends on the where you come from in the country. Well, we don’t want to disrespect Mrs. Harrington. So, I’m here with an absolute legend. We’re here at Phoenix Country Club ahead of the Charles Schwab Championship for On the Bag. We’re going to do what we do on this series. Putter is going to play nine holes like it’s a tournament. We’re going to play ball and hole. What you see is what you get. I’m going to interview him about his incredible life in golf afterwards. We’re also going to give some tips and stuff for Patty’s channel. Uh so we’ve done these. You’re the first champions tour player that we’ve done it with. Okay. We’ve done it with a number of of tour players. The low is five under for nine holes. Jake now. Okay. There’s no wind. You still hit the ball a long way. This course is not that long. I’m feeling a good number today. Well, I would start off by saying like give the quote to Lee Trevino. What’s the worst score Lee Trino ever shot? 65 in a Wednesday. You don’t get paid for a Wednesday. Okay. So, we’ll save the good one for the tournament, but we’ll get started here. So, Oh, okay. And we have a bib. All right. It’s not official until I get the caddy bib. So, so you when this goes on, does the abuse start? Yeah. This is when you can start saying, “What the is that club?” Okay. So, the 10th pole here, we’re playing the back nine. It looks like there’s that bunker is 276. So, that’s you don’t really have to worry about that. Is the line kind of that first bunker on the on the left? Yeah. So, it is driver. Get it down there. You don’t want to miss left. Okay. But the very first thing that we go with straight off the bat with Patty’s golf tips. Where’s this T- box aim? Like it’s straight down the right. It’s trying to You’re trying to hit it. It’s making you want to hit in that right bunker. Yeah. So, if a T aims right, tee up on the right hand side. That’s That’s my best way of taking the angle of the T- box out. If the T aims left, I tee up on the left hand side to take the angle out. So, I’m I’m better off if I’m here. I have more chance of aiming down this fairway that if I go over here, I’m gonna get I’m gonna be 10 yards right away where I think. So, let’s see it up on the right side. Well, it’s certainly not missing left. No, that’s nice there. That’s a good one. Nice little kick forward. Beauty. So, your uh your speeds, what are they at right now? And I mean, I know when you started playing it wasn’t as much of a thing, but I feel like you were kind of Do you like I like to hang on to a club. Um, what are your speeds now? And how do they compare to when you were winning majors in the mid kind of late 2000? I’m I’m faster club head speed and ball speed now, but relative to the field, I’m the exact same now as I was back there. So, if I go out with the young guys, I’m not going to hit it as far as uh as the very the longest of the long. Now, remember back in the day, in my day, none of the long hitters could play good golf. Is that because the the techn the faces are much bigger? Like what do you what do you attribute that to? Uh they were bullied really bullied. What do you mean? Like he all the long hitters it was like frowned upon. Oh yeah. Prior to to Rory Macker, Rory Macker was the first guy first long hitter to hit his driver and keep hitting his driver. You think how the much Tiger got bullies like Tiger the greatest player in the game was the best driver of the ball in the game. Okay, in the early 2000s he just hit it 30 yards past everybody and hit it so straight. Now this is a bit like me in the Champion store. I I’m like not far off last and fairways hit the champion store because Tiger every time he hits driver bar the par fives because all the pars used to hit it straight down the middle. Most par fours he’s cutting a doglet. So he’s hitting it 30 yards past where the driving area is. So it’s narrower. It’s narrower. It’s awkward. You’re cutting across the angle. So if you if it’s a left right left dog leg and you’re going over the corner, five yard pulls in the roof and five yard push is in the rough. You know, it’s a much smaller area. Tiger was a brilliant driver. And think about it, the world convinced them by, you know, later on that, oh, Tiger’s a bad driver. Most kids think Tiger was a bad driver. That’s the That’s the like conventional wisdom. He was a brilliant and really straight and really good under pressure. You know, if you need every par five he used to hit it like back in the day you used to like hit it 330 off the tea on the par fives like just straight down the middle. Brilliant. You’ve been, you know, winning majors. You’re still aware of like the media noise and that still finds its way into your head. I have never read I I say I used to say I’ve never read anything written about me. Maybe I’ve seen one or two things especially with social media, right? But doesn’t matter what you don’t read, you’re continually asked questions. Okay. So, like, you know, you notice at the press conference, they’re asking me about my driver all the time. Yeah. They’re asking you about like like a guy could like could have gone through 54 holes in a tournament and and somebody goes in well-meaning and says, you know, you haven’t missed a putt inside 5T. Like a player doesn’t need to know that if he doesn’t need to know it. So, yeah, you can’t get away from what other people think. It gets to you. It’s It’s like people, you know, if you don’t read the news, the important stuff will get you eventually. It still finds its way. All right. We have a beautiful t-shot here. This one is what? This is the champion store. Oh, yeah. You guys got the lasers. We’re going to get the laser out. Just point and shoot, baby. I was I was so excited. I was going to do all my numbers. Well, well, actually, the way we do it, myself and Ronin, is he does the yardage as normal and I laser. So, just a double check. It speeds up play nicely. Yeah. If you’re out position, we’d only use the laser, but on the fairway, we’re basically going with it’s 159. You tell me now that the pin is on 12 and so 4759. So, if it’s 59, it’s I mean, we’re Arizona’s at a little bit of an elevation, right? Yeah. The ball is going here. Is that just like a comfortable n iron for you? Yeah. Cool. I I think a three/4er 9 iron is going to be good enough. So, at at sea level, this is like a 150 club. You know, I we’re going to be here. We’re going to be here for five hours if I keep talking like this, but everybody has a choke point in their irons where one iron doesn’t quite fit in this in the system. This used to be my nine. So, once there was a time like at the start of this year like 150 would be 154 would be a good nine iron. Strange. It’s moved a bit at the end of the year like I’m now like 169 iron. So, this at one did I say it was 59. Yeah. Yeah. I think with the altitude want to pitch at 57 3/4 9 kind of held into that right to left wind. Of course I’m playing here. I got to be thinking here. Yep. I I’ll stay out of your way. So I always you will see me I I always prep take a couple of practice swings to get the feel for the shot. So usually it’s three practice swings for me pretty and then I want to walk in and not change my mind. So this bit is the is the crucial three. Be good. Do not talk to my golf ball. You don’t like it. Be good. I don’t like you saying anything to my golf ball. What? What do you mean by be good? What? What? What? What? I’ve been interp I’m just trying to like put some positive vibes out there. Do not talk to my golf ball. Do not take his driver off the tea and just shut your mouth all day. I got it. Do you want the putter? I’m going to No, you can carry that up there. Maybe you could give me the putter. That That would be a sign of a good shot. Yeah. Okay. All right. But I can never understand like the ball is in the air. Yeah. You can do nothing. You saying be good is your anxiousness that you’ve got. So if a caddy says be good in the air, it’s to me if I’m listening into that, I’m thinking he’s afraid that he’s got the wrong like the wrong like does he think it’s not good? Like why would this is what’s supposed to happen? Yeah. So like, so my caddy Ronan, as I said, we’ve worked together 21 years now. And and and we work, we do like we put together what we’re do. He’ll only say good shot when I hit a good shot. Yeah. Like so it means something. If he says good shot, I nearly Oh, that was pretty damn good. Yeah, that must have been good. Yeah. And and like that, he won’t advise me on what shot to hit unless it’s important. So he’s not turning around. Yeah, you hit this at the camera tower. Do this, you know, play safe here. Because that just gets monotonous and you’ll end up not listening, right? So, but if he comes in on the 16th hole and says, “Hey, this has flags five off the right, but there’s actually only two yards right of it, and if they miss right, you can’t, you know, you’re not getting them, then I go, okay, I better pay attention.” Yeah. So, it the the trick with a caddy is say less and that means what you say is going to have more more punch to it. But I do feel like everyone’s different in that way, right? Like you’ll see you playing on tour, some guys are talking to their guy nonstop, non-stop about this line and this line and how this feels. I want my caddy to talk to me a lot, but just not about golf. Got it. Yeah. I want to be chatting away having a good time out there. But if you talk too much like the classic one is Caddy stands in the he says it or the par three, hit it at the camera tower and the player hits it 15 yards right at the camera tower, you know, to three feet and he goes, “Good shot.” shot and I’m going, “Well, was it the camera tear or the pin?” Yeah, it’s not what you told me. Yeah. Oh, that was okay, guys. I I’m I’m not saying anything. I thought it was a very mediocre golf shot. No. No, you don’t. That would be I’m giving you crap. I know that. Tell you what, guys. I called that pretty well, didn’t I? Pitched about too short. 57. Is my be good looking a little better in hindsight or no? Yeah, I know. The shot was very nice. It was It was a tiny nicely structure. Oh, these greens are carpet. Yeah. No, they they’re renowned for being really good and fast green. These are so good. If you miss a putt here, you just you just missed it. You know what sort of caddy is that? I’m talking to the camera on that one. If you make a putt here, you’re just a legend. Okay. Good start. That’s a birdie. One under through one. Despite all my caddyy felonies. Are we doing a Patty’s golf tips? Yeah, sure. Absolutely. This is the most obvious patty golf tips. So, a lot of people will know this, but then there’ll be some who don’t. So, as we can see here, ton of grain, huh? Yeah. Once the hole is burnt or broken, that means everything’s breaking towards the center of that. And a classic is here. Look, the old replaced hole. You can see how it’s burnt on one side. So, everything’s breaking to the center of that. The rever the other side of that is the color. You might be able to pick it up on camera, but if we look up that way, it’s dark. That means it’s uphill. And if we look that way, it’s pale. That means it’s downhill. I’m color blind, so that doesn’t mean much to me. So, I’m going to go with that trick. Tone. The dark colors, that’s slow, uphill, and the pale is downhill fast. Tone I can maybe work with. Yeah. And that works the same when you’re chipping and out of rough. So, like how much did you factor that into the read there? Like, oh, big time. Like a full ball difference or shortest swast. You know, it gave me confidence that it was up there. Yeah. You know, I says, “Okay, this is up the right hand side.” Uh, and and trusted that it’s going to come down from there. So, it’s 289. So, we just got to stay right at that. I’m like No, no, you can tell me. You know, this is good. This is what my daddy does. Yeah. He He’s going to go in through the shots, but So, 289 to the front of it. 306 past it. And it feels like that that tree is a little short of it. You’re going over kind of the left edge of that tree. Yeah. I I’m going to try and hoop it over. Okay. Is there any reward to that or Well, it just takes the bunker out play. All right. Let’s see. So, I’m I’m trying to hit it straight. Yeah. But I’m going after it to hit it a little harder. Okay. Oh, little draw. Come on. It’s right rough up there. Yeah. It was a really nice drive, but kind of you see it flying pretty straight usually. You don’t not you don’t curve it really one way or the other. I’m trying to I’m trying to I was trying to curve that. I was aiming that like right edge of the fairway with a draw and and it came out solid with maybe five yards of fade. So So you mentioned um you know heckling and you know a month ago we saw probably the golf tournament that was there was more heckling than I’ve ever seen. I mean I was there. Yeah. Um, it was not a good scene in my opinion. I I could tell you straight out I like as a former captain I can go and get the VIP treatment and do all that. Couldn’t have been bothered going because of what the atmosphere was going to be. You just knew going in. Just said, “Well, I don’t want to be there.” But you’ve played in so many and you’ve captained. Was it like all of the Road Rider Cups feel like that or did you think this one would feel different? And from what you’ve heard from the guys, was it different? I I I think this a couple of things happened. One one we watch the RDER Cup because there is niggle in it. We want the rivalry. Okay. We want the arch. Yeah, we want that. So, we do want uh you know a vocal crowd. Did it cross the line? Yes, it did cross the line. H does it cross the line sporadically over the years? Yes, it does. So, I think it was just more of it. I think the biggest thing that will come from this Ryder Cup is the US team who absolutely encouraged it. You think so? Oh, we’re looking for chaos and all this. So that’s that’s like I did notice like you know I felt like there there was a lot of I mean the captain speaks every day like in the leadup there was a lot of opportunity for someone to say there was loads we want some we want them to be passionate but we want them to be respectful of the game and the competition and they didn’t say that. No, there was like and they would say, “Well, we didn’t want it to cross the line.” And yes, they didn’t want it to cross the line, but they didn’t. They encouraged the chaos. That’s, you know, that’s wanting to win. I’m not, you know, I’m not saying it’s right or wrong as in I’m saying that we we all watch the writer Cup because of the chaos. Okay. So, but what the US team figured out this time and is incredible because it has, you know, you got to make a mistake in order for it to hit home. You know, even when other people make mistakes, okay, you can learn from other people’s mistakes, but sometimes you just got to make your own mistakes. And clearly the US team have now realized that negative support, as in being negative to the opposition, is not helping them. It brought them together. I thought, yeah, it’s not helping them. So, they’re on the on the golf course wanting to win, but feeling bad about what’s happening to their friends, you know? So, you’d want to be a very thick skinned person to be out in the golf course wanting to win by your fellow player getting abused. You know, we do want to win. We’re tough competitors, but that, you know, the US team negative support actually turns out not to be good. So, I think going down the road, I I think the next Ryder Cup in a contentious place, the home team will be going out of way. No, no, no. Let’s let’s be nice to them. does cheer us on. So, you think you think it it lit a fire under the Europeans or you think it was more of like a bit of a guilt complex? I think it took away I I think I it definitely lit a fire in the Europeans, but I think it hurt the US. I think it was it was it wasn’t good for them and I don’t think they’ll want it again. I don’t think they’ll be starting. I think there will be more we want, you know, a really good support here. You want to cheer us on and come on, you need some songs. This is what I was saying. I think it’s because of the football culture, pub culture. You this 10 people with a song has so much more weight than a 100 people yelling personal insults. Well, well, how long like USA how long can you cheer that? This would be the first thing when we play a practice round at a venue where we would uh we would Yeah, there you go. Appreciate it. We would test, we’d always in practice go into the roof and see how the ball comes out because you you’ve looked at that and you said it’s heavy. And while the grass is long, I suspect it’s not heavy. Like it won’t cut through. I I think the roots I’d say this was a late growth of the grass. I will I bet you the roots aren’t going to be strong here. So if you’re under trees, the roots aren’t strong. If you’re away from the fairway, the roots generally aren’t strong. But I think a late growth, so if they had it this long all year, then you’d have substance. But if they if they leave it too late to grow the roof, it can be long. but just doesn’t have any point. So, it’s not just how long the rough is, it’s how long it’s been that long. Yes. And and and like the greens, it’s the direction it’s going. So, if it’s grass is going, which is pale, the ball will come out quick. If it’s going against you, it will come out dead. So, 134. So, for your amateurs at home, that’s why sometimes they can get in the roof and hit their fivewood out of it. And then the next time, you know, they should be hitting a seven or eight iron out of it. 134, guys. So you probably want to pitch it like 130. Yeah. So you think it’s 46 probably or you like you you going to muscle at 52? I’m going to the 52 is the sensible play because it will cover the front at 120 and if I cover the front it has a chance of running up to it. Yeah. 52 all day. Okay. Yeah. This is Yeah. Your club’s moving through it really nicely. Yeah. I can see it’s cutting through it. came out. I hit it a little heavy. Be interesting to see for the rest of the week whether that was me or the rough. Feel like he caught that one a little high on the face. It came out much softer. There might be a bit of moisture in the roof, but that would be the sort of thing if I was here playing a practice round, I’d definitely drop another ball or two and see why that happened. And again, for not harpered on about Patty’s golf tips, if you want to become a player, you actually have to go play golf on your own because the only way you get feedback is hitting a shot and then hitting it again and hitting it again until you get it right. And being honest with yourself about what happened. Like that’s a big piece like Yeah. 100%. you you hit one over the green and you might say, “Oh, that was a flyer.” Or were you really steep on it and so you aided the flyer or were you know like not just not just going out there mindlessly. Well, I I think you won’t know that unless you hit a second and third shot. Right. That’s what I’m saying. Yeah. And then you can figure out no, I didn’t have enough club or it’s always flying from this lie. So golf is more it’s definitely more experienced than anything else. So knowing what’s going to happen in each situation. the execution. There’s like, let’s face it, there’s probably 10,000 people on Instagram who swing the golf club better than the 125 guys who play on tour. Yeah. So, the difference is experience. So, seeing a seeing a really pretty golf swing means very little to you. Well, not in Instagram anyway, because you can fake a pretty golf swing very easily. You want to see the numbers and things with it, right? And you want to see 10 in a row, too. Yes. Changing clubs. I go 58. Yep. So 64 is is not a great club for chipping off fairways with the lot. Too much loft. 58 should be okay. They are fast. Oh, they’re really good. That’s uphill. I just pulled it though. No putter cover. I’ve never had a putter cover. Aren’t you worried about it picking up little injuries along the way? That makes it real. Yeah. I always get the impression that somebody who puts a putter cover on their putter, it’s temporary and they’re going to sell it. Okay. Like they’re thinking, “What’s the resale of this putter?” Okay. Okay. When putter goes in the bag, it’s for life. Okay. Okay. Do you not think that would be I mean, you know, I think that a lot of these sport pros, they probably get their putters for free, so they’re probably not thinking about that. But I I like where your head’s at. Well, yeah. I’m I’m thinking more we’re we’re going this way. I’m thinking more uh am they grew up as amateurs. It’s It’s saying that by looking after it’s kind of saying this might this putter might not last. Yeah. Well, it’s my putter. It’s real. How long have you had that one in the bag? So, I I this actual one is only in the bag five weeks. Oh, so it’s a baby. Yeah. So, I use the same two balls from this from the start of the year. Uh, but I change grips. So, instead of changing the grip on the game or I change grip on on another, this is the advantage of being a pro. So, I want to change grips. I don’t change grip in the putter. I get a new putter and put a new grip on and see do I like it. I don’t want to mess with the one I have. So, I’ve used the two ball when you were winning majors. You had the two ball, right? Yeah. And and the reason I’m using it now is it worked back then. So, that’s why if it worked then, it means it’s me. Whereas, if I go to something else, you can convince yourself it’s the putter’s fault. Yeah. Like, there’s guys who’ve used four putters in a tournament. I’ve used four putters in my career. Yeah. Pretty straight. Yeah, you know, I I I I would see it as straight. The grain’s going right though, but the grain is there, so I’m going to go left half. So again, it’s reading the green is an amalgamation of experience of Oh, you know what? Big grain here. Look straight. Yeah. Give it a little bit of left to right. Not too much. right in the middle. Good save. I need you guys out here. I’m I’m available for work. This is Well, so you said that golf is like an amalgamation of experiences, but we’re seeing the game getting younger and younger. How do you reconcile those two thoughts? Okay, you’re you’re 100% correct there. So, the game has changed. So when I came out, it was mostly players who knew how to get it around. Yeah. And not a lot of good swingers. There’s good swingers, especially the long hitters got bullied as I said earlier. They they they were like remember Davis Love came out in in ‘ 89 and like they convinced them hit an iron off the tea. I played with Woodland and and Bubba Watson uh even DJ when they you know at the start of the career they were all hitting irons off teeth. Thenor then Rory hit driver and they went oh we should do this and they played much better once they could see somebody else was hitting driver. So I grew up with a friend who was a really good best ball striker as good as anybody even to this day. And when he played amateur golf, if he missed a fairway, the selectors would say, “Oh, shouldn’t hit driver.” If I missed the same fairway with driver, they wouldn’t criticize my play because I wasn’t a long hitter. So, every time he you know, and and they’ve shown like the stats show the longer you the closer you are, closer is better. Yeah. Speaking of closer is better, we got a drivable par4 here. Sort of drivable. Mother Nature took a few trees out, so it’s a bit more open up here. So, originally I wouldn’t have gone driver. It was 5 wood. So, I don’t mind these two bunkers at 312, 313, they’re okay. So, as long as I’m carrying the 299s, if you’re going out drive a par4, you definitely have to consider where the pin is, right? Just where your miss is. But here, we’re okay. It’s got a little bit of What’s that? Something happened. Bit of my caddy walked in behind me as I was saying. Oh no. Yeah. It’s not my fault at least. Yeah. No, not your other caddy. You know, and that’s Speaking of the It’s amazing how good the young guys are. Yeah. The young guys, they don’t have the eternate. Like when I was brought up, like, you know, you didn’t you couldn’t walk ahead of a guy on the fairway. Like you had to that imaginary line, you couldn’t go past it. You didn’t move. You stayed still. You There was so many things. Nowadays, young guys just play. They don’t care. You You’ve noticed that when you play with younger guys that have a more like cavalier attitude, you could be standing there wandering. You could be taking a practice swing beside them and they’d play and and and just get on with it. Whereas I’d be like, “What are you doing taking like you stop?” Like, you you ever say anything? Oh, yeah. We I’d say something if someone you’re always when it’s your turn to play, it’s your golf course. You can tell anybody anything you like and they can’t they shouldn’t take offense, right? Cuz it’s it’s nothing to do with them. It’s nothing to do with anybody as in that’s how I was brought up. I don’t like people. So, perfect example with me is cell phones. So years ago, people would take a picture and like I’d be so distracted by that click. Okay. Now it’s you’re allowed to take the picture, doesn’t bother me. Yeah. So it was the guy breaking the rule that bothered me. So like if you put a kid a baby screaming on the golf course wouldn’t bother me in the least, right? Kid doesn’t know any better. It’s a baby. Who cares? So I I’m I’m getting better. So like if I see somebody say, you know, 150 yards a cart is moving. I’m like, get that car to stop. Yeah. But it’s because the guy’s not paying attention to me. I want them to stop. It’s pure respect, but it’s in my head. Yeah. So, the young kids couldn’t care less. They’re brilliant. Like I’m saying what the way the young kids obviously we want certain amounts of, but they are much better at we’re just p you know, they don’t care what anybody else is doing. They start like you watch watch some of the amateur tournaments. the lad’s practice swinging this year. I’m going he can’t stand there and do or or they’re like I saw this in the Walker Cup or USM like as soon as the other guy makes impact the other guy like walks right in front of him like while he’s still watching his ball. Like there’s definitely Oh yeah. You never cross AC. You should never cross across somebody. Yeah. Look, there’s lots of stuff that that’s changed and it’s changed because there’s so much pressure for the players to play quickly. So they they’re trying to get eek time out of it everywhere. Uh and do you think there’s more pressure now than there was when you started? Oh yeah. Because of massive pressure to play quick. Uh why uh social media, you know, coverage. Like the best players for me probably two of the better players in my time would have been Phil Mickelson and Jim Furick. They get a difficult shot, take forever. They would stand there and work it out. They would take whatever time they needed and Jim was frightly crazy. Jim could hit a shot in 5 seconds. Like it was like he he’d walk up to some chip shots and he just he’d be chipping it. Yeah. And you go, “Oh my god, that was quick.” Like and he could. So overall, he was a very quick player, but he was he knew what he was doing in each situation. So I slightly I slightly neck that. So I would actually consider like that’s a lot better than 150 100 yards. Yeah. Well, cuz you’re a professional golfer and this and this shot doesn’t give you, you know, shivers. I think most amateurs, this one’s pretty difficult. It’s like a 50 yard bunker shot, probably. Well, I’m hoping it’s going Yeah, probably 50. Yeah, 46, so it’s within my range. I think 40 yard carry. How do you play these? I just hit it a little harder on my bunker shot. Really? Maybe a little square. 64. 64 degrees from 48. I don’t go down to This is my bunker club. If you put me I’ll only go into a I need to carry this 40 yards. I think I can do that with it. Yeah. Square club face, nice sand. Remember, we’re pros. We get much nicer bunkers. Mhm. You know, our bunkers. So, simple rule of thumb. If your bunker is hard to rake at your local course, there’s too much sand in it. So, you’ll watch me. I can rake this bunker. I’ll just pull it out and it’ll rake very easily. If you’re in there and you’re trying to get it level, means there’s too much sand. Now, the problem is amateurs will hit a bad shot. They have no idea why they’ve hit a bad shot and they’ll come in and complain to the club pro or whoever it is and say there’s not enough sand in the bunker. So, to please them to chuck sand in, but you can’t play good bunker shots out with too much sand. Yeah. Like if we want to make if you want to make the golf course harder, just put too much sand in the bunkers. Really? Oh, yeah. Once it gets like lumpy and there’s a bunch of sand under just a lot of sand under just tub digs, ball plugs, never sits well. Like the better condition your golf course is, the better you score. Yeah. the worst condition and that would include the bunkers. Right. Right. I got to get up and down. 46 yards. Little bit of ball there. So, watch rake. Yeah. Thank you. But it’s just And that’s how you know it’s the right amount of sand. Yeah. It’s going to be easy to rate, right? like he’ll do like obviously a pro caddy would do a better job, but in terms of of your of your amateur course, you know, if your bunker if you’re coming out and you’re seeing your bunkers are a mess, means there’s too much sand in them. Have you uh gotten into golf course design at all? Has that been something that’s like interesting at all to you? Oh, yeah, very much so. I’m I’m much keener on, how would I put it? how a golf course plays. So more of like the conditioning and the eronomy. No, more how you set up a golf course to make it look hard but play easy or make it look easy and play hard. So you want you basically essentially a good golf course is very easy for amateurs but looks difficult and very difficult for pros but looks easy. Okay. So we never pros hate going to an easy golf course that you trick up. Okay. That’s very frustrating. But again, there’s a lot of golf courses we go to that we find easy and marinate find hard. I’ll give you the number one example that I can think of. Sherwood Country Club. You go unbelievably you go to Sherwood and you go with a a 12 handicap and they are making an absolute mess there. Yeah. Sherwood Pro shoot 20 under. Yes. So yeah, there’s a lot Sherwood is actually So a perfect example like you could have and Sherwood does this. You could put a lake right here. Yeah. Rock lake. Okay. So, everybody who hit misses this green per foot is in the water. Now, you could put the lake here. Okay. Now, as long as you keep a certain level of grass here, okay, ball’s never going in the water. But when the pros come, you just cut it down fairway and that now that becomes the water hazard right there. Yeah. So, that’s all you have to do. It’s just change how you maintain or look after your course when the pros are come. when we only come once a year at most and you can make it easy for the arms and they won’t know any different. Yeah. Like the amateur doesn’t really realize, you know, so you also very few amateurs who walk off a course and they say, “You know what? It’s just too easy.” No, like that’s not a thing. Golf is hard enough. All right. We got a little bit of a tricky line. We have We’re in trouble here. After after we just, you know, I’m not happy. Praise those bunkers so much. Yeah. Well, these are pretty good that you know, you might find that this has been watered, sorry, has been raaked when it was wet in the morning. Okay. So, it’s it’s made it the the sand could kind of ceil at the top. If this had been freshly raaked, it probably wouldn’t have uh So, you got to play kind of a runner now, right? It’s it’s always going to pop up on the up slope. So, normally you’re trying to get the ball to the hole out of a plug line. This time it’s all downhill. So, I’m hopefully it’s going to come out right. That’s just what happens. And I need to land it in this fringe. It’s actually not that bad. You got this. It’s not I normally I’d have to go into it, but this one I I can get underneath this. I’m not I can play this pretty much normal. Too hard. Not horrible. Horrible for me though. Horrible for you. Well, what’s the chance of me holding that? about 35%. Oh, giving up. That’s terrible. Terrible. But it was just really an execution error with the second shot, right? Like you didn’t you wouldn’t do anything over again, you know? No. No. I wouldn’t change how I played the hole. You know, do do you know the shot that I I actually am most disappointed with? Bunker shot. Yeah. Yeah. Cuz you felt like that was actually pretty doable. I It was doable. And that’s like if you hit it in the bunker where I am, you can So you will have certain players that hit in that bunker and will fat short of the green because they’re so afraid of it. Mhm. I’m going to hit the golf shot. I’m going to go for you. I’ll make some birdies from there. Every now and again, I’m going to come out a bit longer, a little bit closer to the ball. I should have got up and down, but I put myself in a position that there was a lot of riskreward in the next shot. But you don’t mind that. You you pride yourself in playing without fear. I’m trying to win a tournament. Yeah. I I I I pride myself in dealing with the fear. I play with a lot of fear. Interesting. So, it’s there. Oh, you just you just when you when you face that choice, you say, “Yes, you just got to take it on.” And it’s easier to do it on a Sunday afternoon. It’s much harder to do it on a Thursday. Well, I mean, you’ve played, you might know the answer. You know how many golf tournaments, professional events you’ve played? It’s got to be like six. It’s I was told Ronan, many pro events have I played. He told me the other day, I’m coming up on the 600 500 in Europe or 500 in Europe. 750 or so. Okay. So, you’ve played a you’ve played so so so many golf tournaments that like it has it’s almost wouldn’t be human if it didn’t feel a little monotonous at times early in the week. Well, it it so on a Thursday you say hitting it in the water out bounce feels like you’re ending you know you want to stay in the tournament on a Thursday. So, you kind of feel like that could be the end of it by taking double bogey bogeies. Okay. On a Sunday, you’re in a situation that double bogey doesn’t matter cuz you’re lo double bogey or bogey, you’re losing the event. So, you’re trying to make three cuz you’re trying to win the event. Everything outside fear. Yeah. There’s no there’s no But it’s either first or nothing. Well, for you that’s not the same for No, I agree. I agree. But that’s the only attitude you should have. Unless you’re got a card on the line or something like that. like you’ve got to, you know, when you’ve got a chance of winning, you’ve got to do or die. There’s no there’s there is no there’s no finish in second. 180. 180 feels like seven iron. So, this is the toughest hole in the court. Really? Yeah. Easily the toughest. They put that pin in the back right a lot. Yeah. This front pin, you don’t want to miss left. There’s a runoff here. This is easily the toughest shot of the day. Like this is if you were leading the tournament on Saturday night, you’re thinking about this hole. All right. Well, let’s take it on. Like you said, I’ll take any this one. You don’t have to take every shot on. But now if I was if I was two shots behind, I’d definitely be taking it on. But here you’re kind of aiming it like over that first that stake, that red st. I’m going to the sensible shot here because you’ve got a right to left. You’ve got a right to left angle. trouble on the right. If you hit a draw, your miss is going to be pin high or long left. So pin high could stay up here. Whereas if I go with a fade, my miss is short. Short right. Yeah. So a fade into a right pin over water is not a good shot. Even though like if you’re thinking about it, that might be the pretty one to that pin. It’s not the Yeah. Yes. You’ll see somebody hit that shot and you’ll go, I want to do that. see it. And she’s a beauty. She’s a beauty. Okay. I keep my mouth shut these days. Good shot. You know, even for me though, I hit that shot. I’ve hit it well. I’m looking up to make I’m looking up. Hope that hasn’t started. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Everybody’s individual and personal. So I I double cross my fades a lot. You go one way. I I I’m a make a decent swing. It starts a hair maybe a couple yards left where I’m aiming and maybe looks like a pretty shot and finishes another two or three yards left of that. Whereas my draw, yeah, my draw tends to be straight turning over. So, you know, I don’t I I think everybody the way to figure it out is go out on your own, find a hole like this with the water hazard on the right and hit five draws, five fades, and see what works for you. Yeah. And you’ll find that, you know what, I’m I’m very comfortable hitting a draw in there with my seven iron, you know, but maybe if I got down to a three iron, I’d be going, “Oh, I don’t.” Yeah. Quite fancy this could come out, you know. So, there it does change. They’re not every shot is the same. Yeah. So, for example, like most tour players wouldn’t be too stressed aiming at the right hand trouble with a 3-wood or a fivewood off the te cuz they turn over cuz they got a bit of loft to turn it over. Whereas, you know, with the driver, if they’re not a comfortable drawer of the ball, you know, they’re under pressure. Mhm. So, it’s it’s so you don’t you don’t you don’t buy into this, you know, one shape hit your shot. The best players if you can be if you can be onedimensional, you’re really good. Yeah. If if you have a super think about like a Zack Johnson back in the day. Yeah. If you have a J Dustin Johnson’s better example. Yeah. Just didn’t hit it left off the tea. It’s a superpower. So I see players and and they they’ll hit that fade and they go, “Gee, I’d love to hit a draw.” And like I just scream at them now. I say, “Look, you know, you have a superpower that the ball doesn’t go left and you stick with it. Just play it.” You know, you’ll get sucked in one day to thinking that another shot is nice, but it’s not. It’s not uh that’s not true. So if you have a superpower, you you got to know your superpower. That’s basically it. Yeah. So if you know, you don’t ruin your superpower. Like Yeah. That’s natural. Like we didn’t quite get to see this, but when we didn’t see it because John Ram went to live. Right at that start of that year that he went to live, he started trying to draw the ball. remember teen up six inches forward and high. I I played with him at the PGA in the practice round and he was a shadow of the player and I watched a few of the live events and he had the left in his in in him. he opened up whereas his whole game was I can hit it as hard as I can down the left and it’s not going left and for that six month period he hit it left and everybody’s saying oh it’s live or something like no he just he doesn’t want now he’s getting back to hammering it down the left and it not going left but that was his superpower but he was attracted to you know the extra 10 15 yards of a draw on maybe for Augusta but having a superpower is the biggest key and uh you know you just don’t want to change Yeah, you’re blessed with it. Keep it. Yeah. Downhill, downgrain. Yes. Exceptionally fast this one. 500 power is pretty slim now. Hey, we’re just playing golf. Oh, that’s good advice now. That’s good advice. Break. Break. Break. Great putt. Does somebody hear something? Was there somebody? Is that a pigeon talking? Oh, the break. I said break. I said break. You were talking to my golf ball. A I knew when he did that that he wasn’t just being sincere. I knew there was something in it. Now I That’s my bad. That the sound waves probably made the ball not break into the hole. This You have not got that power over my golf ball. All you all I heard you say there is that idiot doesn’t know how to greens and hit the put too high. I get that from my caddy now. Okay. So if I’m on the golf course and I start talking to my ball, my caddy knows I’m anxious. So Ronan would start make fun of me saying, you know, a player talking his talking to his golf ball is a player who’s anxious. Okay, that’s interesting. So I guess Jordan Spe must be like the most anxious person out there. Well, we know. Look at him. Yeah, he he likes doing it. But but in fact you you’re not accepting if you’re talking to the ball 284 into that bunker on the right. So probably 28 278 at those six carries. So probably what 99 going with the low one. I I would go with the low I always go with the low one when there’s out of bounds. You know you want if you want to take a wild shot out. So if you hit a low hard one and it will go out there every bit as far as your nearly as far as your good one. And if you miss it, it obviously not going to carry so far. So it won’t go out of bounds. Yeah. The problem I have here now it’s tiny bit down. There’s a run out on the left at like 300. So I I’m probably going to I’ll tell you the run out on the left is yeah about about 290 295. might be short of those bunkers. No, it won’t be short of it. What’s the deal with this uh head cover? So, when we can walk, guys, carry that saves you the the weight. Yeah. So, in uh let me tell you about my when I won my first major. So in 2007 win at Carnusi my you wouldn’t have seen my three-year-old son was a big part of that win cuz when I finished up I was devastated that I felt like I’d lost the open on the 72nd hole and he came running onto the green and he picked him up and he looked at me like he couldn’t care less. He looked like me like I was his dad and that’s so it completely changed my mindset. I was feeling so low. You bogei the 18th. I made a tremendous double bogey. Best double bogey ever I made. Where did you drive it? I drove it in the hazard and then hit it in the hazard. Dropped out. You almost like you almost really I almost van the developed. Yeah. I wasn’t going to say it. Yeah. Don’t worry. We all were thinking it. Yeah. H there’s a lot of stories on that. when I finished up then afterwards uh I’ve done some done the pre presentation prize presentation trophy presentation done my speech so my son the green is kind of busy my son comes on to the green and it’s the first time I’ve seen him since I’ve not since I’ve won but first time I’ve seen him at that stage with the trophy and he put his hand in the trophy live on TV you didn’t get it over here it was a BBC at home live on TV puts his hand in the trophy he says his dad that can we put ladybirds in it. So this is a ladybird. You call it a ladybug? Yeah. So he actually saw the clar jug as a jam jar for storing bugs cuz that’s what you know the week before we’ve been gathering bugs in the garden. Obviously lady birds are the easy ones and that’s why he says, “Oh yeah, let’s put some ladybirds in it.” So we did. Amazing. So you’ve had this in it for you’ve had this for a while since then. But we did put ladybirds in it. Clark joke. You did? Yeah. We stored them in there. So you probably fit quite a few in there. Yeah. We didn’t we did we didn’t put too many of them to their uh demise, let’s say. You uh you know, I feel like your reputation is like a grinder where you you you practice really hard. You spend all this time on the range working on your game. In your prime in 2007, like after you won that first major, you you’d hear stories about Tiger being on the plane and being like, “When’s the next one?” Did you enjoy it? Did you give yourself a chance to let it sink in or were you kind of on to the next? By that stage, I had figured out that when you win, they don’t come as often and enjoy it. Yeah. I had some of the best parties ever. Yeah. Like just unbelievable. And and if I win again, I’m going to celebrate any win cuz they don’t happen as often as you think. Like there’s no doubt when I was a rookie early on, I’d win and on a Sunday night I’d be in my hotel room thinking about what I’m going to do on Monday, right? No, that’s that’s changed. H I would definitely be all about this game kicks you in the teeth repeatedly. Well, it doesn’t matter how good you are. You you the winning percentage is just so low. So when you do win, you got to tell your mind and your body, I suppose, that winning is good. Yeah, this is different. This is This is what I’m here for. And you enjoy it and celebrate it. We’re safe. Barely. That’s a good break. It is a good break. It’s not in It’s not in the bunker. What do you mean barely? Barely. Yeah, we we were safe by a good 50 yards. Yeah, there’s nothing to say to it. There’s no. Yeah, safe. Barely. God, you look Wait, you saying I’m lucky? No, I just I am lucky. Yeah, that that shot was a little bit lucky. Well, it hit the tree up there and kicked right. It’s not in the bunker and it’s not in the fence. Of course, I’m lucky. You’re right. Yeah, I’m lucky I’m here. Yeah, it’s right. Life is good. Yeah. All right. What would I be doing? Yeah. If I wasn’t here, what would you do? Well, I qualified as an accountant before I turned pro. So, okay. So, you could have been a CPA, something like that. Yeah. You know what? I I I would have probably gone into like managing a golf course, that type of thing, managing a resort or something like that. That’s kind of I wanted to be in the 158. I grew up in the 80s in Ireland. I cannot tell you how poor economically Ireland was in the 80s. Like there was no jobs. Interest rates were close to 20%. So you felt like golf is your way out? I didn’t know. No, I didn’t know any different. I didn’t know that you’d become a sports psychologist. That’s probably what I would have loved to have done. I didn’t know you could become a a sports manager. Did do you what? There was just so little. Like everybody immigrated to get a job. You couldn’t get a job. like you just had to leave if you you know but you still didn’t know what was just didn’t know what was in the world like it was like I look back like it was I had a great upbringing and and brilliant but like like you just think about like how different the world was like just how like economically how poor like it all changed in Ireland in the mid to late mid to late 90s really changed that when all the like American American bank started building like offices over there. Couple of things there. A businessman suggested that we start a tax-free zone. So we had this taxfree zone in in in Shannon. So we’re the number one aviation country in the world because of this taxfree zone. So many people spun out of this got great experience and started their own business. Ryan Air was biggest airline in Europe at one stage. The people who were in there Guinness piece went into this. So everything sort of expanded. So they did the same with finance. They started a financial center taxfree and that boomed. But probably the greatest thing and it be you know be probably contentious h our finance minister in 98 uh Charlie McGrevy we were entering the euro zone so our currency was going into the euro zone and he managed to negotiate about 20% devaluation of our currency which did amazing for inflation and everything and all that was just 20% cheaper. We were 20 cheaper overnight in terms of our our labor, everything going out of the deal. Yeah. Like he it wouldn’t get the credit, but like it was literally a 20% like we got in there at such a good price. Uh it was the greatest piece of strategy. Uh yeah, just like laying it up short of this bunker was a great piece of strategy. I was trying I I I hit the tree. I What do you think? You think tumbling wedge or do you think a little nine iron? It does feel like there’s a bit of breeze behind us. 158. I I’m I’m a bit worried that my last wedge out of rough and I haven’t hit shots out of rough. It came out dead. So I’m thinking this is this is a little heavier. We can see it’s actually being cut down. So I I think I’m going to I want to land at the 150. I want to hit nine. So I’m planning for this to come out heavy. got a really nice kick. Am I allowed to say that or no? No, don’t talk to my golf ball. I that was I that was talking to you about what the golf ball did after it landed. If I asked you where did my ball go, then you could say it got a nice kick. You’re just after telling me, Harrington, you got bloody lucky again. Oh man, this guy’s tough. Everything’s inough. Can Can you imagine dealing with my head all the time? Yeah. Yeah. Ronin, I got a lot more respect for Ronin than I did about an hour ago. I uh I give your country credit for changing my golf life and for improving my play dramatically because I went over there uh for my 30th birthday this past summer. Yeah. went with my dad and two of my best friends and I’ll never forget something that the caddy said on one of the holes at Port Marik. You know, Americans are pretty fond of gimmies. Yes. Right. Like six six feet for bogey. You know, the guys were picking it up and I wasn’t doing anything crazy. But the caddy looked at me and he said, “You know, I’ll never understand you Yanks. You play a sport where there’s a tiny hole 430 yards away and there’s water and trees and bunkers and you do all this work to get the ball to four feet and then you just pick it up. He said, “Who who what is the point of that? Isn’t the most satisfying shot of the day the one that goes in the hole?” And I stopped taking gimmies from that point on and I stopped no breakfast balls. I just said, “I’m going to play golf and whatever my handicap is is my handicap.” And it’s changed my relationship with the sport. There’s less fear involved. There’s less there’s less ego involved. Okay. I’m actually gonna have to I’ve never heard that. I actually have never heard that that way of putting it. So, if you said to me, I’m want to sponsor this young kid. Uh, we’re going to go out and play a game of golf with him. If that kid wanted a gimme, look for a gimme on any put a foot. He ain’t making it as a Okay. So, if you want to learn if you want to learn how to be a competitive player, you’ve got to go gamble, hustle a bit, and I guarantee you won’t be given a h you won’t be given gimmies if you’re hustling. No. And then when you’re playing a tournament where you have to hold out, you’re sitting your pants, you know? No. Everything has to be hauled out. So, you could go into a Sunday with a six shot lead, okay? And nobody is going to turn around to you and say, “That’s good. You’ve won. You have to go do You have to finish it. That’s the one great thing about our sport. Nothing is given. It’s got some break to it. Yes. This actually not not a nice looking put. This is little right to left and I tried to help it in there, didn’t I? Yeah. Remember, a good putter leaves put short. Okay. Yeah. A good I can see what you’re think now. Now I know what you’re thinking. I can’t I shut up and I can’t even win. I have a note in my book. So look, so this is hole 15, right? So this is the this is it. Look, ball comes out right the front right pin. So anytime that pin is when they move it about five yards right of where it is, the amount of time I’ve hit shots here where I think that feels good. Look up and it’s coming out of that bunker. So I just mark that in. that you’re saying that’s just something subconscious with like your angle and how you see the hole. Yeah. So that’s what a practice round is about. By by playing this in tournaments, playing it over the years, I go so if when they moved when they used that front right pin, I’d probably play an extra few yards left, you know, I just go, okay, just aim if I was going to aim five yards left of pin, I’ll aim eight yards left just to give myself a little bit more room because it usually comes out a bit right. All right. What’s our number here? Maybe I should tell you that. How about that? Yeah. 177. I think I can get my eight iron there. Eight. You think? Okay. Yeah. So, T aiming right again. So, when the T aims right, we T up on the right hand side of the box to try and take some of that angle out. This flag’s right in the middle. Aiming it right at it. I’m going to go I think I need to draw to get to the hole. That straightened out a bit, didn’t I? Five yards, right? Didn’t I call it? I had like four things to say about that shot and I said none of them cuz I’m learning my lesson. Well, this is it. This is the way of the world here, isn’t it? This right here. We got the the corporate not the corporate hospitality, the hospitality on top of the Dbox. You love that as a player, huh? Well, I think we prefer noise. Constant noise. Constant noise. You know, the the person up there trying to tell everybody keep quiet would be more annoying than the people who are just having a beer. And I and I try and because as I said, I have this thing about rules and I’m it’s in my own head. I realize that now. I would try and tell myself if I was up there having a beer, I wouldn’t I, you know, I’d be continuing on my life and chatting away and doing whatever. So, you know, I think it’s easier for me as a player to realize that what would I do when I was on the golf course, right? You know, and I’ve heard that, which is a an interesting thing about live golf. I’ve heard that people who go, so non-golfers who go, and we’re not saying all non- golfers, but if we if we if we pick out young men who are bringing their girlfriends, girlfriends who are not familiar with golf get very stressed at being at a golf tournament. You got to be quiet. You got to know where to stand. They’re worried about that because they care and they worry about whereas a live event because there’s so much noise going on. You can’t distract them. they actually enjoy the event a lot more because of the fact that they don’t have that fear. So, we need to get that on the tour. So, you want music playing on every hole? No, but we need to get a situation that we’re not, you know, we’re not the people who are coming out to be entertained are being entertained. We’re not we’re not scaring them away. A little more Phoenix than LAC probably. Yeah. H Phoenix is interested best tournament in the world to miss the cut. Okay. Yeah. I was like, where where is this going? Okay. Cuz if you miss the cut, you have a great time. Yeah. It’s the worst tournament in the world to make the cut and be bottom of the field. Okay. Cuz if you’re bottom of the field, you’re out there trying to play golf. You’re trying, right? And literally everybody else is having a party that don’t care about you. Now, if you’re in the last couple of groups, there’s so much adrenaline. It’s it’s perfect because you got all the big crowd. Yeah. You got the it’s it’s it’s there’s no for the last couple of groups. There’s no distraction. So you don’t want to finish T50 at the waist. It’s a disaster. Miss the cut and you have a great time. Make the cut down the bottom. You just you’ve got a huge amount of FOMO. Yeah. Huge amount of 16 over there. It’s going to be back here. We can drop it up there. So huge. But I just think we got to obviously we’re missing out in something there. probably one of the funniest stories I’ve I’ve I’ve ever seen is uh I’m playing in in Abu Dhabi back in the day and uh I’m actually it’s we’re playing early. We’re playing with Sergio and his caddy Glenn is we’re on the the fifth hole and it’s early morning so like it might be we started early. It might be 9:00. We get to the green and there might be a dozen people at the green and there’s a maybe, you know, 20 people walking up to catch up to the green and Sergio’s getting ready to put and uh Glenn shouts, “Stand, please.” And there was this young couple sitting there, sitting at the edge of the, you know, just there. They’ve been waiting there. They’ve been And they jump up and stand still. He said, “Stand, please.” He said, “St.” Well, the worst thing is obviously we all started laughing. Yeah, they had no idea. We’re just trying to follow directions. Yeah, that’s funny. Stand please. The Honorable Sergio Garcia is in your midst. Well, we just have to figure out how to make it, you know, make it fun for everybody. Yeah. Okay. You any good at reading puts? I I I fancy myself. All right. Okay. Come on. Let’s see. Was waiting for it. Let’s see it. I see it kind of rolling almost on on this kind of there’s almost like a line here. I see it. This is kind of the spot that I’m looking at. Yeah. So, I I would be like you. I get I get very much attracted to if I see something I’m nearly That’s my line. Yeah. So, you’ve gone a little higher than me. Just feel like that grains on the left side. I I did aim point it a bit and it definitely more break than I thought. Saw the last butt kind of snapped. He grew up h not grew up definitely didn’t grow up he was older than even we had the same Paul Mcinley so played a lot on tour Paul was a very nice ball striker lots of fairways and greens but was a terrible terrible putter so he asked me how to become a you know not asked me how to we’re discussing putting and I says well Paul you actually need to miss a few more greens to be a better putter what what do you mean see I led the putting stats every year in Europe as a rookie like regular Clearly, I’d be like down there 25 putts like would be an average day for me. And the reason is I missed a lot of greens and chipped up inside 5 ft. So there statistically I wasn’t gaining a lot, wasn’t holding a lot of footage, but I had a low amount of putts. But how I explain this is if myself and Paul played down the first, he hits the fairway. I miss the fairway. I miss the green. He hits the green to 20 ft. I chip up to two feet, tap in, he misses his 20 footer. Second hole, he miss, he hits the fairway, hits the green 20 ft. I miss the fairway, miss the green, chip up to a 3T, tap in, he misses the putt. Third hole, it’s a four iron off the tea. We both hit the fairway. It’s a wedge the green. We both hit it to 10 feet. Who’s going to hold the 10 footer? Right. You You’ve made the putts. I’m I’m standing over that 10 footer. I’m not doubting my read. I’m not doubting the pace. I think I’m putting well. Yeah, he’s standing there and he’s got all sorts of So, you think making those like five footers for par early in the round kind of gets the juices going? I I just think Yeah, single putting is a great thing. This one stat I kept over the years when I was into this is how many putts how many times I had my first putt on the hole from inside 8 ft that if I could do so if I hit long shots inside 8 feet or missed the green and chipped inside 8 ft that’s when I scored well. Yeah. You liked feeling like you’re getting up there with a putter trying to make it. Yeah. And again inside 8t a lot of those are going to be five and four footers that you’re knocking in. You might have to grind on them, but you’re knocking them in and feeling good about it. Trust it. Doing too much talking. That was an easy put up the hill. Still level up. There’s time. There is time. You know, I’m kind of feeling like it’s that time at this moment. But I obviously took the game, you know, my personality. I would have taken the game very seriously. We talked about the etiquette, the rules, all those sort of things. H that’s who I am. So there’s no doubt I burnt out. You know, I remember 2015 I went h missed the playoffs over here. So I went home to Europe and I played game was hard at the time. I was trying so hard and shooting like 72s every day. You know that’s just you’re just not earning any money doing that or doing. So I’ve gone to Europe and I’ve played Prague, Hamburg, Crom Montana, Amsterdam and London. And I said to myself, well, you know, I had a ball of a time, Irish guys out there, dinner every night. I just loved it. I said, you know, I really do enjoy this game. Why am I Why am I not enjoying it? So, I figured out I got rid of a lot of the stuff that wasn’t making it fun. And uh, you know, I started to Did you feel like I mean, you were uh I did one of these with Justin Rose and he was saying, you know, his generation was kind of the first of the European guys where it was like, we’re going to move over here. We’re going to play the PGA Tour full-time. Did you feel like that took a little bit of joy out of it? Well, I never moved. Right. So, like did you feel was that one of the reasons why where you felt like No, I I I just think it’s a long time. 20 years is a long time playing golf and you just can’t be do what you know I couldn’t keep up the pace I was setting myself as a young man, you know, getting up like Scotty Sheffler when he got arrested. I was 20 minutes after my te time, right? He’s arrested and everything. I was still in I was I don’t think I was in my I was in my bed. Yeah. Just getting out of bed. You’re not getting there two and a half hours. I’m not getting there. Yeah. Well, they were there probably on three and a half hours. Yeah. And as a young man, you would do that, but you know, it gets to a stage you can’t keep up that pace. Uh so yeah, I changed a lot of things like that. So I describe it like this. If uh in my heyday, if somebody said we’re going for dinner at 8:00, I’d have gone, well, you know, I got to go physio. I’ve got to go to gym. I’ve got to do this. No. Whereas now, if the lad said, “We’re going for dinner at 8:00.” I say, “Yeah, I’ll make physio work.” Everything else changes. It’s not that I’m not practicing. It’s not that I’m not doing the physio, but I’m The most important thing is I enjoy my life out here and everything else follows after. And it’s interesting as I’ve played better, what do I start doing? The old stuff. Start trying harder. Yeah. It’s 3:22 to that green side. Sort of greenside bunker on the right. Yeah. Okay. Come on. Concentrate. Left to right wind. Yeah. Sorry that Oh my. If Yeah. is too much. Yeah. said that was what did you mean by yeah like that was really that was [ __ ] flush. Yeah, there you go. See, I knew I knew. So, uh you obviously love love love golf and you like to talk about golf. I do. And I’m not afraid to say say that. Yeah, I love golf, too. Yeah. I’m curious. I feel like you’d be perfect for that commentator’s chair. I know you’re still playing really full-time, but I mean there was some there were openings this past year with the kids stuff and like was that something you got to have considered? I did it in when I as I said in that period 2018 and and uh I did a bit of it and liked it really liked it and I I like the coaching but there’s nothing compared to playing. What do you mean? Just just the rush just the the rush of playing and I you know just being out here and the lifestyle out here and uh yeah it’s not going to nothing could compare you if you could do this you you’d like I’m having okay I play 28 events a year. So I’m literally having 28 bus holidays a year. Holidays. Like you you just talked there about your trip to Ireland as an experience of a lifetime. Right. You do that all the time. I get 28 of them. Yeah. When I turn up, the golf course is in the best condition that golf course can be. There is nothing left to chance. I get to the airport, there’s a person there to meet me, give me a brand new car, off you go. Staying in a nice hotel that Adrian books for you. Yeah, I think you know, look, I I people would say to me, well, where are you staying? I actually would have to open up the email as in I do not worry about anything of that. Like I just turn up, what’s my next step? Okay. Okay, that’s my hotel. Put that in sat now. Go there. You know, there’s just it’s a very easy life if you look at it like that. And well, you do have a good perspective on it because I haven’t heard a lot of guys say it that way. But I’m I’m saying I’ve had to learn that. Like as a young lad and tour I stayed in I I remember in Italy I stayed in I stayed in we’re in Rome. So we stayed in Rome. Beautiful golf course Italy. If you really really great golf course in Italy, great place to go on golfing holiday. Uh, we’re in Rome staying there and it’s taken an hour to get the golf course. So, I’ve moved out to where the golf course is into a motel. It had concrete floors. Nice. And a steel door. And I stayed there because it was 10 minutes to the golf course rather than an hour. Okay. That would not happen now. Yeah. I am going Rome. I’m staying in there. I only have to get up out of my bed once in the morning. So, I I’m okay with that hour. So like I’m much I’m a different but you have to look for that and and and look. Do you wish you could go back and tell yourself that or do you think it wouldn’t have worked at the time? No, I I I don’t like I don’t regret would I change I wouldn’t have changed anything like that. I’m a young man. I’m trying everything to be the best player I can be. Right. So that you’re not changing that that staying in that hotel was the right thing at that time. Yeah. Just wouldn’t be now. Right. You change. People change. I had to change. You can’t sustain yourself. If you burn out, you can’t sustain yourself doing those things. You have to, you know, be realistic. This is what you have to, you know, what you can handle and what you can’t handle. So, I I know I really love golf. I like playing golf. So, I just have to work the stuff around it to make sure that uh but commentary. I love commentating. Love having this chat with you, but once you become a commentator, you have to be quite professional. Yeah. You got to show up to the production meetings. You got to be there on time. You got to do the research on the players. I can go in now into I can go into a TV booth and have a chat and I can go say a word and I can mispronounce that word. You can if you’re the I don’t, you know, I don’t get fussed about. But if I’m the if I’m the actual guy, I get that right. Well, anything becomes work. I mean, like, you know, playing golf as your job is different than playing golf for fun. It’s the same thing as going into commentary for a lap is different than being there for, you know, you’re on you’re on air for three hours four days in a row. It’s Yeah, it’s significant. It’s it’s a it’s a it’s a tougher job when you have to do it. Yeah. I guess you Paul McInley is a you know good resource for you because he does it he’s doing it like very serious now. But that that’s his model. Okay sir. Do you want a number here? Yes. I always want a number. Okay. 43. 43. Okay. So you’re going with the 64 here. I’m going with the 64 because I know the shot. And so every time you’re hitting a chip shot, you got you’ve got you want to chip it close first priority. And then you want to take the most amount of risk out of the shot for it going wrong. So generally I’ll land the ball on a flat spot at the bottom of a slope. But if I choose something like this shot, I’m going to instead of trying to land it on the edge of the green because if it land short it’s not getting on the green. I’m going to try and land the ball about halfway onto the green, halfway to the pin. That’s a lot of room for error. Yeah, you can go long and go short. That’s a lot of room for error. So, that’s why I’m going with like it’s harder to hit my spot maybe with the 64, but I have more room for error with it. It’s under the hole. It’s good look. Yeah, I’d rather be 2 feet above the hole. That’s true. That’s another thing that stats have just completely debunked. Yeah. Like, oh, 7 feet below the hole is better than 3 ft above it. No, it is not. The stats have really helped the guys who don’t know how to play golf. Yeah. Like, well, that’s I think one of the things with the young guys. Yes. You just look at the spreadsheet. We had this discussion, you know, we were getting on to it earlier, but the game when I came out was majority of them were players would work the ball around, know how to play the game, whereas now it’s morphed into the majority of the guys playing now are swingers, so they hit the ball unbelievably well. And when you have 50 guys who bomb it, the winner is going to come from those 50, right? You need to be one of those 50. Now it will evolve back again that everybody would be able to hit it. So in 20 years time to distinguish yourself it will go back to being imagination your skill sets of what hit shot. So you think we’re in sort of an in between now where there is actually a group of guys who have superior physical skills but once that once that baseline is all the way elevated it will the margins will come back. Yeah. I don’t know if they’ll come back, but like you still need to go to a major. So, at the moment to try and win a regular event, there’s 50 guys there who bomb it and as long as nothing particularly goes wrong, they’re going to shoot the 20 under. Well, if you look at this past week, uh my buddy Patrick Rogers shot 25 under not even didn’t even get a top five. Yeah. So, this now that wouldn’t happen at a major because they will come they’ll be under pressure and they’ll get in more awkward situations. But down the road, the ball striking will everybody will need the ball striking. But it’s easier to get that ball striking. And it’s it’s not hard with with YouTube and and and the knowledge that’s out there. It’s easier to become a great ball striker. So if everybody’s a good ball striker, well, what’s going to separate you? Has to be imagination. So, like if I’m teaching if I’m telling a young kid and and I I think this is even more so for the for the for young girls because they quite haven’t had the the the power revolution at all. So, they haven’t really had that player come out. Michelle Wi was there, but I think she got really like Michelle Wi the ladies tour really hamper the long hitters. They they really make sure that the holes are short enough that you can’t be a long hitter. But you will get somebody you they they haven’t had their Rory Maroy that will come out there and go, I hit it 40 yards past everybody and I’m going to hit driver and I don’t care what you say. So that’s going to happen. But again, to do that, it requires quite a significant amount of short game skill and imagination. But it’s going to happen. Right. talking talking too much. Come on, let’s I want to hear you read. Come on, do something useful. Come on. Well, I gave you a good read on the last one. You didn’t listen. You did? I did listen to it. I just didn’t You just didn’t trust it. I just didn’t not trust it. I just wasn’t doing That’s the difference between talking and having a routine, you know? I mean, there’s not a whole lot in this. It feels like we’re putting straight. If anything, I I feel like I would favor inside left. Okay. But I really don’t see anything. I go look at the hole. Okay, the grain is right at the left. I mean, I’ I’d maybe go left edge if I wanted to give the grain a little bit of love. You can see from here, I do think it’s going to maybe fall right. Okay. Even over this distance, I’d be thinking outside the hole over this distance. Okay. Be hard just for it to Yeah, it’s hard to think about that stay that long. Some caddy that. Some caddy that. What? I broke more. Camera was there. The camera doesn’t lie. I I was standing behind you. Do you know what the the caddies always want to be asked on the first hole to read a put. All right. They want to be brought in read this put. And of course they want to get it wrong cuz then they won’t be asked for the rest of the day. So that was wrong. That was that was like a cup out. I’d say I’d say more than a cup. I say I hit it a cup out. Now I might have got some, you know, who knows? Maybe I got bit. There’s no security in a caddy. It’s a terrible job. It’s a terrible job in that sense, but it’s an addiction. Well, because you get the rush without you get the rush. Now, these are most of the caddies are finished college. They went cadding for a year. They were thinking about being a pro, maybe knew they weren’t good enough or whatever. Went cadding for a year, but once you get the lifestyle, can’t give it up. 20 weeks holidays, 25 weeks holidays. What job gives you 25 weeks holidays? chance of winning the lottery every week because it feels like that and you’re in the heal you’re in the battle in the hood. You can’t give it up. It’s an unbelievable once you start the amount of people that you went to did a survey all the caddies every one of them will tell you I was just going to do it for a few months or a year to see the world. Next thing you know you’re out here for 25 years and more 40 years. You can’t you can’t give it up. It’s uh 284 to get into that bunker on the right. So I think anything left of it we’re golden, right? Yeah. All right, let’s see it. Okay, so left here, I don’t know about today how short it’s going to play, but left here is actually not a bad play. Cuts cuts, cuts the corner, gets very short. Right, it gets quite long. Okay. Nice one. I wanted to say fall left so badly there. Yeah, but that that would have just portrayed anxiety. You would have hated it. Yeah. So, I didn’t do it. Did I? I didn’t talk to it. I wanted to ask you something. Why do you think Europe keeps winning the REDR Cup? Yeah. It’s interesting. You know, going back to my years, it meant more to us. You felt that? Yeah. Well, it was we were the European tour was the country cousins, you know, PJ tour, the big boys. We’re we’re the little guys. And underdog mentality. It was our guy, our way of proving that our tour was as good as the PJ tour. We had a chip in our shoulder. Yeah. So, we were coming by winning the Ryder Cup. It said our tour was a valid, you know, equal to the PJ tour. It doesn’t matter whether it’s true, but you know, you got to believe it. So, that’s that’s obviously gone away because the players now and going forward are US-based. Yeah. Like there’s a lot of players in the future will never it’s even hard to don’t have an affinity with the European. Well, especially with how good college is getting. Like a lot of the top European players go to college and they’re in PJ tour, but they’re but they’re not starting off in Europe either, right? So you you have to go back to Shane Rory, they started in Europe, Justin started in Europe, but now you know Havland Oberg, guys like they don’t start in Europe. So they don’t have that same I want to get, you know, they won’t they can during the week and and I think that’s the brilliant job Luke done. He’s done it twice now to motivate the players to have that fight in them. What are they playing for? You know, because it was very e very evident to me. I was playing for the European tour. Yeah. So, uh I I you know, so what has he been how has he been able to get them to rally behind? I I they’re focused on playing for their country. They’re focused on playing for Europe. H but not the same. They’re not focused on playing for the tour, you know. It’s different to the tour. It used to be, you know, like so that’s the reason that they made all those putts. Well, it it’s part of it is is motivation. Yeah. It’s a weird thing, isn’t it? It’s a weird thing. It sounds like, you know what I’m You heard the tone that I said that in, like it sounds, when you break it down, it sounds like forcical. It’s like, what do you mean? Like, I don’t think that JT when he’s, you know, has a putt on Friday morning. I think this team like my right cup in 2021 afterwards it was like Europe need never turn up again not for 20 years you because that was the old guard they were all leaving they were at their no you our old guard was leaving and you that’s what I’m saying but you had a younger Yeah we had JT and SP but we never know what’s happening in golf like you’ve gone to this Ryder Cup you’ve gone to this Ryder Cup with a with a like a complete mismatch in the team like you haven’t got your your your your players like your old guy like Dustin Johnson like the greatest Ryder Cup player ever. Dustin, he could play five matches and could probably play a six match. It didn’t stress him. Everybody else who plays four matches loses their singles. Like it’s like a 30% win rate. Didn’t bother Dustin Johnson. You had players some great like Brooks Keepka. You tough competitors, you know, now Yes. Big or Yeah. Patrick Reed. Now you have a changing of the guard. So you’re in between. But that will change pretty quickly because we’ve seen it change in Europe and you know the next time around you guys could be the like we had the bigger stars this time. You had Rory and Rob and Victor and Tommy and bigger brands. Yeah. Bigger bigger brands more social media following. Yeah. Just the bigger stars of the game, you know. So like it’s it’s uh but that does change. But does it define whether they hold the putts or not? Like winning the Way Rider Cup is an incredible achievement. Yeah. Uh that’s that’s phenomenal. Like did you feel like they were going to do it? Did you did you have a good feeling about it? I really did think they had a great chance. I would have edged the US just because of that home. But what what we figured out here the traditional of having a big open golf course at Birdie Fest actually suit Europe more than it did the We never seen you played Beth Page Black in a couple tournaments. Oh, well we knew that was going to happen. I I didn’t know. I’ll check you on that. I think we knew to a degree it played easier than when my me and my buddies like camped out to play it. Yeah. Way easier. Way easier. It was like It was like unrecognizable. It was jarring to see. Yeah. But Tesotine was so easy in 2016. Yeah. Did you feel like But did you feel like Whistling Straits was easy when you guys were there? That course is It was as easy as they could make it. It was a birdie fest. So US like loads of birdies, fast greens. Europe likes slow greens and real par like difficult par, right? But that’s changing because the European players aren’t European anymore. They’re more US. That’s why it didn’t suit the US players as much. All right. What’s our number here? 125 52. Yeah. Oh no. Oh yeah, I came out of it early. That’s so like let’s say you hit a shot like that in competition. How will you will you then actively on the next wedge be thinking about that one or will you just try to flush it? Ideally, you wouldn’t be reacting to the next shot, you know what happened before. So, I would probably prep it a little bit, you know, might change my target line, you know, on So, like if you if you stand up and you snap hook with out bounds and you’re getting up in the next hole and there’s an out bounce down the left, you know, probably aiming it pretty far right. Well, see, this is the thing. What you how So, if you start trying to change your golf swing, you’re only just going to miss it right. You know, you’re going to end up in the right trees then. you’re not going to. So, what you do is you’re kind of waiting until you get you’re hoping to get to a hole where you can hit driver where there’s no trouble left and then you swing away and see when actual fact that ball going left was not me. It was something funny alignment whatever. But if the outbounds is there, you don’t stand there and hit driver and ignore it, right? You change your strategy. So, what what that means if it’s a driver hole, maybe you do play to the right edge of the fairway. uh if if you can go back to a 3-wood or an iron, you know, just play it safe for a hole or two, you know, there’s no there’s no harm if you’re not feeling good. There’s no harm in being conservative. So, that’s interesting. You know, talk about a Patty golf tip. Amateurs are not good enough to make swing changes in the middle of the round. Well, none of us really should be thinking about, you know, if you’re playing golf, you shouldn’t be thinking about your swing. You know, you can even a guy like you who you you’ve tried all the different things once you get out there. No swing thoughts. That’s why that’s my only frustration in the game and it’s the one thing that I spend a lot of time with swing thoughts and then I try and play without them. So then what what is your brain? You’re just hoping that like they seep in there like um subconsciously. Yeah. But you have to train it. You hope you don’t hope it seeps in there. Yeah. So there’s a little more to it than that. There’s a bit more to it. So you don’t say please please take. So it it’s very simple. Two brick walls. One’s your mental game, one’s your physical game. Anytime you’re working on your physical game, you’re taking a brick for your mental game and vice versa. So that’s the way it is. So if you want to be strong mentally, you got to spend your time over here. If you start working on your technique, you’re always pulling. It’s a different rhythm. When you’ve got conscious thought, it’s a different rhythm to when you have no conscious thought. You different waggles. You see people stuck over the ball. It’s completely different way of playing golf. So, never thought of it that way. Yeah. No longer asking for advice in the reads. Caddy’s got the sack. I’m not offended. Thinking about Oh, what thought did I have there? I don’t know. I left the last two short. Get it high. I got left the last two short, so I blasted that thinking don’t leave it short. We had that discussion earlier. It’s a golf is a crazy game, man. You You’ve accomplished so much in this game and you still make that mistake. Oh, yeah. Yeah. You very much so. It doesn’t If anything, it gets a little harder with experience. You know, you’re making the mistake. Yeah. You know, and Lovely. So, yeah, like it doesn’t it doesn’t get there’s a sweet spot with experience obviously, you know, you you you have to gain experience, but you have to have innocence. Yeah. You can’t have the scar tissue. Yeah. the two of those and when they cross, you know, that’s obviously when you’re at your best, but you know, there is a beauty to innocence. Yeah. So, yeah, that’s that’s what the young kids have. They just get up there and hit it. Yeah. Until they don’t. Until they don’t. Yeah. All right, we got Finally got a par five. So, let’s let’s flip around. Let’s get into Let’s make a three and get into red numbers. Just be bombs away here. Yeah. I look at what the carry is on the bunker. The bunker carry is 287. Okay. So, nice nice carry that one. Not too hard. And what’s the left bunker? The left bunker is 316. So, you’re going to try to hit one hard and carry that right bunker. I I you know, 287 is okay for me. It’s not a hard one. Yeah. Uh so, there’s no advantage of me hitting it hard because the it only brings the 316 in. So, just a normal shot. Left edge of it. I I I go over the middle of it. Okay. Nice. Can I Can I keep that for the week? Can I say nice? Well, on the 18th hole, it’s appropriate to say nice. Yeah. Okay. Nice. Yeah. Um, what did you what did you change your mind? Like what what happened there? I just I had a target and then I said, “Oh, I think I’ll go a different target.” But just because. Well, yeah, it’s okay to change a target, but you you you never want to. So, in a good routine, the minute you step forward to the ball, you don’t add anything in. So, what even if you even if you’re going a technical thought or whatever, you stick with what you got. You don’t try and do it more, you don’t try and do it less, you add nothing. So, as I walked up, I was like, “Oh, that could be a little too much down the right.” So, I wanted to change target. So, I stopped and started again. So, a player who is focusing well will step off the ball a number of times. It’s almost like they’re checking themselves, making sure that they’re committed. Well, you just don’t you just want to check if you don’t change your mind. That’s the key. So, you don’t walk up and change your mind as you’re walking up. You don’t change your mind. You don’t add in. You don’t stand there and go, I need to hit it harder. You don’t stand there and go, I need to hold it more. Don’t hit it left. Any any new thought is not a good thing. I like that though where you said once you take the forward step. Yeah. You can have those thoughts in your head. Yeah. Well, I look I play better with those thoughts. Yeah. So, so like I have this terrible habit. It’s cost me so many tournaments since I’ve been a kid and I continue to do it. Lost the senior PGA this year because of it. When I get confident, I jump up over the ball. I’m going to hit the shot and then I second guess it as I’m over the ball. Right. Why does it happen when you’re confident? Yeah. Oh, because I I end up thinking that this is an easy shot. So, usually I’ve either made a birdie on the hole before or I’ve done something on a really usually it’s the the hole before is really difficult and you you’ve come off it like Yeah. You know, you’ve done well. Let’s go. Yeah. Or or this hole is or or it’s a nothing shot. So, it could be a par four that’s just the t-shot is a nothing. It doesn’t make any difference. You’re not able to, you know, you’re laying it up or something. I just get over the ball and then I’m over the ball and then I have some doubt and it blows up. Whereas if I have the doubt behind the ball back there, I’m dealing with it. So when it if if I standing here and I’m going, I don’t want to hit it out of bounds here on the right. Okay, that’s okay. Then I get over the ball at the top of my back swing, I might think, I don’t want to hit it out of bounds here on the right. But I was prepared for that, so it won’t blow up. Okay. Whereas if I was standing over it and say, “I’m going to bust it down the middle. I’m great. Oh god, don’t hit it right. Don’t hit it right.” And I and you weren’t expecting it, then all of a sudden you blow up. Yeah. So that’s what happened to me in 2007 on the 18th hole at Carnusi. I I just driven the ball so well that day I was just going to bust it down the middle. It’s going to hit the greatest drive ever. I was in it and I got a little bit of doubt the top of my back swing. Big blow up. Yeah. Big choke. Whereas what’s that feeling like when you when you’ve got the lead in a major championship? Well, that was devastating. Like what like I mean try to describe it like you see that flying. That was devastating because prior to that this was my run. I was getting into a state that you know I I was getting I knew how to prepare. I was able to to to peak at the majors. I was getting in the zone. But this was the first time I was ahead playing the last. So it was mine. Yours to lose. It was mine. Yeah. and I choked like you can’t the only time the one and only time in my whole golfing career that I wanted to give up after the second third shot in the war I wanted to walk in and my caddy you know started saying to me it’s not over yet one shot at a time all cliches and he took the four iron off me because I think I would have hit him took it off me and for whatever reason he just kept at me he kept at me come on let’s see what we don’t know what what’s going to happen let’s play it out one shot at a time and sure enough I hit the chip shot like a teenager showing off. I was like a child like hey watch this spin and like a kid like a kid as a 15year-old showing off to his mates. That’s how I hit that’s how much I was in the zone hitting that chip shot. So you were able to to I went from the zone and I I tell this story all the time because two parts to it. One I want to know did anybody else ever get in the zone and out of the zone and been back in the zone. That’s like an unbelievable thing. Hard to do right not getting much run are we? No, we are not that that carried about 315 then. 316. Yeah. Nice. Nice. That we these conditions that would be. So anyway, I was back in the zone. I I’m telling you the short version. So I told that story for like six months afterwards. Okay. Everywhere I went tell the story about how my caddy believed in me and he did the job. You know, we’d worked with Bob Rattella on this and he was brilliant. So, uh, we finish up six months later, Christmas or so, telling the story and Roland is there. I says, “Oh, it was brilliant. My caddy, he really he he believed in me. He didn’t think I’d lost the open and he, you know, he did his job. He he he went through the cliches. He really really believed.” And Ron says, “Puts his hand up says, “Actually, I thought you lost the effort open, too.” Of course he did. But other caddies wouldn’t have done that. Yeah. Other would have just shut up. would have would have put their head down and walked five yards behind the guy cuz he’s walk I would have walked like that to the ball and other caddies would have walked behind but no he got in my face just kept at me and it worked. I’m not saying it will work every time. I know how hard it is to do with you now after catting for you for eight holes. So I got a lot of respect. No, the key here is it’s not actually that your words have to have meaning. Don’t just say go or be good. So when you say something when a caddy says something, it’s got to have okay, I’m listening. Right. All right. We got 214 to the flag. Okay. I don’t have a pin sheet, but I’ll do my best to shoot the front edge. It looks like it’s about 198. Okay. So, I mean, I don’t know how far you hit. It feels like it’s hot. Looks like there’s a little wind helping. Is is 6 the club? Six the club. Okay. So, but what’s the shot? That’s the problem. What’s the shot? Yeah. I feel like I mean, if anywhere you again, I don’t want to say I’m very careful about not wanting to say the wrong thing. No, you’re okay. I’m I’m only gesting. Like obviously you can’t hit it right. So I feel like with six iron just hit a draw at the starts at the flag. If it over cooks it’s in the bunker and you’re all right. So if I go with a draw down the right hand side. Okay. So if aim right but doesn’t you don’t have to aim it that far right. No. No. But I’m just saying if I aim right for a draw and try not to hit it right, I’m going to hit the green more often by going down the right with a draw because I’m not want to hit it in the water. If I aim left and try and cut it, I’m probably going to aim left and try and not hit it right. Same thing because I don’t want to go in the water. So, I’m likely to miss left. So, I’m gonna miss the green more often if I go with a fade. But, I’m not going to hit it in the water as often if you see a fade here. Actually, no. I probably will hit it in the water even less if I go with a draw. But, the one time I hit it in the water, I’ll feel awful. You got a lot going on up there. Yeah, but I’m just trying to explain the reality of the situation. You got more going on up there that I’m qualified to handle. Maybe if this was a Thursday, Friday, Saturday, hitting it down the left hand side of the green is probably the right play. If this is Sunday and I need to make birdie, the only shot is down the right with a draw. That is the only shot. That’s the one I see. This is my Sunday. Yeah, I won’t be here the rest of the week. That’s okay. That’s the shot I’m going to play. Down the right with a draw. All right, let’s see it. chickened out of it a bit. Okay, it’s a very nice beautiful flight. Okay, really solid. It just came out a tiny bit. So, I was very happy to see it start on the line it did. I I can’t see. You can’t see. Obviously, I’m expecting that to be d short right at the green. A very nice good leave. A great leave. But again, these are the things you have to every player has to work out for themselves. Are you better off aiming at the trouble and trying not to hit it in the trouble or aiming away from the trouble and still trying not to hit it in the trouble? I found that my best success is what you just talked about there. If I if I hit a draw and I know there’s I know there’s water, right, I’m going to draw it. Yeah. If it’s if I’m hitting it, if I start my if I start if I’m saying, okay, there’s water on the right, so I’m gonna aim it to the left side of the green. Then subconsciously I’m like, well, I actually have a little room to push it if I need to. And then you can really then you can hit in the water, but also you could aim at that left side of the green and still make a swing not to hit it right. So you’ve got double play going on if you’re aiming left. Yeah. Where if you’re aiming right, your one play is don’t hit it right. Yeah, that was so everything lines up. I think I need to have a plan. Like I need to have like a concrete plan with the golf shot. And I think Yeah, I think putting yourself in a position where this has to draw. It does feels more stressful. Yeah, it does. But it’s the way to play golf. Yeah, it does feels very stressful. I would have played the other way all through my best years. I’d always have tried to hit a cut into this hole. I thought that was the right shot. I would have played both. I had an unbelievable short. So, it probably was the right shot cuz I was making four from that bunker every time or out there on the left every time. Am I allowed to say that it’s better than a couple yards short of the green? Yeah, I’m actually walking up here a little bit. Yeah, if this was the tournament. I’m giving you the putter. And I wouldn’t have said I thought it was a little bit short either. Have you? Oh, I pured it up the right side. I might have sneakily asked Ronan, “Where is it? Where is it?” Tell me. I got to ask you before we finish up here. Yeah. What do you make of the state of world golf right now? You’ve seen the professional game go through the Tiger era. I I think they’ve made a inc media have made an incredible perpetuating mistake. Everybody’s now believing that all the best players should play some of the time whereas always the best players it was some of the best players played all the time. So it’s completely this idea that the best players play all the time never happened. Never happened. You’re saying when they don’t they didn’t all play against each other. No, only at the at the odd big event. Yeah. We come together and even at the odd big event and Jacks and Aries and things like that, you still were missing two or three of them. The best players found the time to play together. But that doesn’t mean that’s the right answer, though. It is the right answer. Why is it not Why is it not the right answer for every other sport you get, you know? No. No. If all the best players play every play together some of the time, right? That means when you’ve got a weaker event, a great a player can go and win and everybody watching because they don’t know who that player they beat. There’s no context unless there’s another named player in the field coming down the stretch. So they need a good good players to play in all events to give context to the young guys coming up. Now if you go to the if you have the same best players playing in the same best events, there’s no opportunities to win. Scotty and Rory are winning all the events. How do you guys become How do they learn to win? The ideal scenario would be the number one in the Fedics Cup plays the first week, number two plays the second week, number six plays the first week, number 11 plays the first week, number 16, 21, all the way up, right? And then you’ve got 20 of the of the top 100 playing every week. And then they have to play their first week. This obviously number two plays the second week. He has to play that week. and then they’ll find a way. How it was before when there was like five spread. Yeah. When half the best players played in Europe, it was great because then when the Europeans come over, it was a story. You keep everybody playing together. There ain’t no story except Scotty and Rory. That’s an interesting perspective. I haven’t thought of it that way. And it it’s destroying those. To win a PJ tour event is an incredible standard. And yet people go and win them and and this the media is going, “Ah, who’d he beat?” Right? To win a PJ tour event is You’re playing brilliant. Yeah. So, they need to spread out the talent. The t all the talent will play the big events. They just will. But they need to have somebody in every event. I never thought that. And let’s face it, you say it’s in other sports. It’s not in other sports. We’re going to finish with a eagle here because we need to get underpar. Underpar is the name of the game. Oh, this is a nice one. This is a nice one. I like these putts. The grain is going that way. He likes it so much I might let him hit it. I mean, my eyes see a little right to left brake, but I feel like the grain’s going to hold it up quite a bit. Like, if you come over here, it’s very dark. It’s got to be like, if you stood here, you’d see that left to right all day. I just can’t see it with my color blindness, honestly. Really? Yeah. Top color blind list wasn’t uh No, I’m really bad. I’m like on the worst. So you you would play this on the I the most you could convince me is straight. Okay. So do you want me to lie to you? No, you’re telling me I can’t convince you, right? So see where I have a little arrow here that this green actually goes front to back in this section. So you’re seeing it this way. Yeah. So the arrow is convincing me. Yeah. I think I feel like that was a helpful exercise because now you’re very committed that it’s going to go right. Yeah, I I’m with you though. Like if you were standing here, it looks like it wants to go left, right? Definitely down at the hole. Yeah, for me to me it’s starting out going that way and then at the end it’s it’s coming back right to left. So I’m going to go just outside the hole in the left. Working on the principle. It’s straight for the last six feet. Let’s go. That’s so big. We don’t shoot over par on this series. We don’t even shoot even par on this series. Come on now. Let’s go. Big time. Did it go right? It did exactly as it said in the tin. It went right for the first 10 feet and then dead straight. Well, thank you so much for doing that. That was a pleasure. That was really enjoyed it. Uh I ask everyone to give me grades as a caddy. I know mine’s not going to be super high because I talk too much. First tip, sunscreen. Yeah, I put some before you’re well and truly burned. Yeah, fantastic. The number one rule for a caddy. Look, doing yardages is pretty straightforward. Book does most of the work. Yeah, that’s straightforward. So being committed to what you think, being able to say what you think is very important. So you you tell the truth and you you stand behind it. I think it’s this. Then it’s up to the player to moderate. So that’s one. So being you know giving an honest committed opinion, not changing your mind just because you’re wondering what the player is thinking. And the second thing which you have good at is having a good rapport on the course being able to talk. Like if we were out we’d be like myself and my caddy we wouldn’t wouldn’t be talking about golf. Well again thank you so much. That was awesome. Uh subscribe to Scratch. Subscribe to Patty Golf Tips channel. That was a ton of fun. Thank you to the champions, PJ Tour Champions, I should say, for having us out here. Thank you to Phoenix Country Club. Hope you guys enjoyed and uh we’ll see you on the next one. Sweet. That was very good. That’s a wrap. I enjoyed that. Yes.
21 Comments
He's the best. Could listen to Padraig talk golf advice all day.
Paddy is such a legend haha. What a player and what a character
Great stuff ❤
First 25 mins… This guy is so OCD/controlling… Probably why he's successful.
Don’t TALK to his ball !!
Fascinating commentary! Great job
Man! This guy Danny really sucks
Padriag wins and he celebrates for week or longer. Scottie wins and it’s all forgotten by Monday. Different values I guess and I accept the reasonings from both. I’d probably live half way between the two though.
Oh! Never talk to Padrigs ball again..🤐😀
I think you did really well dealing with Padriag. I’d would have shut down and taken umbrage after the first “You can’t”. 👏
Love to know Padriag’s wedge line up. I heard him mention a 52, a 54, a 58, and a 64. Were they it and course specific or were there more in the bag?🤔
I hope a lot of golfers get their eyes on this video. The walks down the fairway were so interesting and insightful.
Loved this, Thank you 🙂
I vote Dan gets in the next internet invitational.
Damn, shame is Dan otherwise I would have watched this. Love Paddy
PH is the greatest living golf philosopher and an economist …
Do not talk to the ball and please let him finish his sentences. Why would one interrupt Padraig?
The golf sage!
Can’t believe you talked to his ball.
No putter cover them says he got new putter 5 weeks old ..,
This is fantastic (and as a caddy, I agree with so much that Paddy is saying about that caddy/player interaction!) Thanks for this!
Best video so far!